Arkadij Naiditsch ( az, Arkadi Naydiç; born 25 October 1985) is an

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

i (since 2015)

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 dist ...

grandmaster who previously represented Latvia (until 2005) and Germany (2005–2015).

Career

In 1995 he won the European Under-10 championship in

Verdun Verdun (, , , ; official name before 1970 ''Verdun-sur-Meuse'') is a large city in the Meuse department in Grand Est, northeastern France. It is an arrondissement of the department. Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital ...

. Naiditsch was the winner of the Dortmund Sparkassen 2005 Tournament, ahead of higher-rated and well-known players such as

Loek van Wely Loek van Wely (born 7 October 1972) is a Dutch chess player and politician. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1993, and was rated among the world's top ten in 2001 with a rating of 2714. In March 2019, he was elected to the Dutch ...

Veselin Topalov Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; bg, Весели́н Александров Топа́лов; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Champion. Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by wi ...

Peter Svidler Pyotr Veniaminovich Svidler (russian: Пётр Вениами́нович Сви́длер; born 17 June 1976), commonly known as Peter Svidler, is a Russian chess grandmaster and an eight-time Russian Chess Champion who now frequently comment ...

, Vladimir Kramnik, Michael Adams, and Peter Leko. In 2007, he won the German national championship based in

Bad Königshofen Bad Königshofen im Grabfeld is a small spa town in the German state of Bavaria, located in the Rhön-Grabfeld district in northeast Lower Franconia, Bavaria, Germany. According to the Bavarian State Office for Statistics and Data, Bad Königsh ...

. In 2011 he won the 15th International Neckar Open with a score of 8½/9. This achievement enabled him to cross the 2700 Elo rating mark. In the same year Naiditsch played on the top board for the German team that won the gold medal at the

European Team Chess Championship The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...

Porto Carras Porto Carras (Greek: Πόρτο Καρράς), known as Porto Carras Grand Resort, is one of northern Greece's largest and most famous hotels and holiday resorts. It is located on Sithonia, Chalkidiki peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. It is about 120 ...

. Naiditsch won the Grandmaster Group B of the

Tata Steel Chess Tournament The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Ste ...

2013 in

Wijk aan Zee Wijk aan Zee ( literally ''Neighborhood at Sea'') is a village on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk, the province of North Holland of the Netherlands. The prestigious Tata Steel Chess Tournament (formerly called the Corus ...

on tiebreak over

Richárd Rapport Richárd Rapport (born 25 March 1996) is a Hungarian-Romanian chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 13 years, 11 months and 6 days, making him Hungary's youngest ever grandmaster. He was the Hungaria ...

after both finished on 9/13. This victory qualified him for the Tata Steel Group A of 2014 (later renamed 'Tata Steel Masters'). In August 2014 he won with the black pieces against World Champion

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

, playing first board for the German team in the 41st Chess Olympiad in

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies in Northern Norway. The municipality is the ...

. The following month Naiditsch won the 2nd

Grenke Chess Classic Grenke Chess Classic is an elite chess tournament held in the German cities of Karlsruhe and Baden-Baden and sponsored by . It was held annually between 2013 and 2019, with the exception of 2016. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both the 2020 and 20 ...

tournament in

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the Rhine, the border with Fra ...

. In December of the same year, he finished first in the 38th

Zurich Christmas Open The Zurich Christmas Open (german: Weihnachtsopen Zürich) is an annual chess tournament that takes place in Zurich, Switzerland. The tournament began in 1977 and has been held 38 consecutive times. In 2013, Polish Grandmaster Radosław Wojtasze ...

. In January 2015 he tied for 1st–5th with

Alexander Donchenko Alexander Anatolyevich Donchenko (russian: Александр Анатольевич Донченко; born 22 March 1998) is a Russian-German chess grandmaster. He is the No. 4 ranked German player Chess career Born in 1998, Donchenko earned ...

, Eduardo Iturrizaga, Matthias Dann and Miloš Pavlović in the Masters section of the

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

Chess Festival, winning the tournament on best tiebreak score. Naiditsch tied for first with Magnus Carlsen in the 3rd Grenke Chess Classic in February 2015, finishing second after a five-game

blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, an Imperial German Navy light cruiser b ...

playoff, which ended with an

armageddon According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...

game. In July 2015 he switched to the Azerbaijani Chess Federation. On 30 December 2015 Naiditsch won for the second consecutive year the Zurich Christmas Open. Six days later, he won also the Basel Chess Festival for the second year in a row.

Personal life

In October 2014, Naiditsch married Ukrainian-Israeli chess player IM Yuliya Shvayger. He currently lives in Baku with his family.

References

External links

* * * *
Arkadij Naiditsch
chess games and profile at Chess-DB.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Naiditsch, Arkadij 1985 births Living people Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors German chess players Latvian chess players Azerbaijani chess players Latvian emigrants to Germany Naturalized citizens of Germany Naturalized citizens of Azerbaijan Sportspeople from Riga