Temur Kuybokarov ( Uzbek: ''Temur Qo’yboqarov''; previously ''Temur Igonin''; born July 22, 2000) is an Uzbekistani-Australian

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

in 2019. He qualified as a grandmaster at age 18 - the first from Western Australia - and then in 2020 became Australian chess champion. Born in

Tashkent Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of ...

, he represented Uzbekistan until transferring to Australia in 2018.

Chess career

Kuybokarov was taught chess at the age of five by his mother and first coach, Tatyana Igonina. At the 2010 Asian Youth Championships, held in Beijing, China, he finished in a tie for first place in the U10 section, taking the bronze medal on tiebreak score. At the age of 11, Kyubokarov (then Igonin) defeated World Champion

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating of ...

in a simultaneous exhibition, a feat which received worldwide attention. In 2016, he moved with his family to Australia, where he lives in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

, Western Australia. In December of the same year, Kuybokarov won the 8th Penang Open. He transferred his national federation from Uzbekistan to Australia in 2018. He won the 2017 and 2019 Australian Open Championship. Kuybokarov achieved the

norm Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envir ...

s required for the title of grandmaster in the following events: Australian Open 2017;

Aeroflot Open The Aeroflot Open is an annual open chess tournament played in Moscow and sponsored by the airline Aeroflot. It was established in 2002 and quickly grew to be the strongest open tournament; in 2013 it was converted to a rapid and blitz event, whil ...

2017; and Gold Coast Open 2018. He also scored the fourth norm at the 2018 Abu Dhabi Masters. In January 2019 Kuybokarov was named one of Western Australia's 50 Rising Stars. In December Kuybokarov won the 2019 Australasian Masters GM norm tournament in Melbourne with a score of 8½/9 points. The next month Kuybokarov won the

Australian Championship The National Second Division (NSD) – also referred to under the working title The Championship – is a proposed Australian national second-tier men's, soccer league, to be run by Football Australia and the Association of Australian Football Cl ...

in Sydney, the first West Australian player in the 135-year history of the event to win the title. In November 2021 Kuybokarov scored 5.5/11 in the FIDE Grand Swiss in Riga, Latvia and won the Mersin Open in Turkey with 7.5/9. In February 2022 Kuybokarov won the Perth Open for the first time.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuybokarov, Temur 2000 births Living people Chess Grandmasters Australian chess players Uzbekistani chess players Sportspeople from Tashkent