Zoltán Almási (born August 29, 1976) is a Hungarian

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

player. Awarded the title Grandmaster by

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

in 1993, he is a nine-time Hungarian champion, winning in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2019. Almási has competed in 13 consecutive

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...

s from 1994 to 2018 earning team silver in 2002 and 2014 as well as individual silver in 2010 (on board two) and 2016 (on board three). In the

FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 The FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 was held at the Almahary Hotel in Tripoli, Libya, from June 18 to July 13, 2004. It was won by Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who beat Michael Adams in the final by a score of 4½–3½. He won about US$100,000 and ...

, he made it to the fourth round where he lost 2–0 to

Rustam Kasimdzhanov Rustam Kasimdzhanov (born 5 December 1979) is an Uzbek chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Champion (2004-05). He was Asian champion in 1998. In addition to his tournament play, Kasimdzhanov was a longtime second to Viswanathan Anand, incl ...

, the eventual winner of the event. In 2008 he won the Reggio Emilia tournament in Italy scoring 5½/8 points. He crossed the 2700

FIDE rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American chess master and physics professor. The Elo system wa ...

line in November 2009 (2704). In 2010, he won the European

Rapid Chess Fast chess, also known as speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time than classical chess time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz chess, and bullet chess. A ...

Championship. He tied with five other players after 13 rounds and won tiebreak matches against Shirov and Gashimov. The next year he won the Sport Accord Mindgames Blindfold section. In 2013, Almási won the Capablanca Memorial scoring 6½/10 points. In the 1990s Almási was one of the very few grandmasters to play the Berlin defense which was then considered as dubious. His games inspired

Vladimir Kramnik Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...

to adopt the system for his world championship match against

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...

in 2000 which then caused a resurgence of interest in the opening.

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* * * * * 1976 births Living people Chess Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Hungarian chess players World Youth Chess Champions Place of birth missing (living people) {{Hungary-chess-bio-stub