Daniel Fridman ( lv, Daniels Fridmans; born February 15, 1976) is a Latvian-German

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. Awarded the title 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 2001, he was Latvian champion in 1996 and German champion in 2008, 2012 and 2014.

Early chess career

Fridman was born in

Riga, Latvia Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Bal ...

to a Latvian Jewish family. He learned the rules of chess when he was around four years of age. He soon became a regular player of youth tournaments, competing at the national, regional and international levels. His biggest junior success occurred at

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...

in 1992, when he took home a bronze medal in the Under-16 category of the

World Youth Chess Championship The World Youth Chess Championship is a FIDE-organized worldwide chess competition for boys and girls under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. Twelve world champions are crowned every year. Since 2015, the event has been split into "World Cade ...

. By the mid-1990s, Fridman was recognised as a serious force in Latvian chess. He went on to win the

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

in 1996, having gained the

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

(IM) title in 1994. Leaving his junior status behind, he had some early international tournament successes at the Wichern Open in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

in 1997 (joint second place, behind

Sergei Movsesian Sergei Movsesian ( hy, Սերգեյ Մովսիսյան; born 3 November 1978) is an Armenian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1997. He was a member of the gold medal-winning Armenian team at the 2011 World Team Chess ...

) and

Senden The town of Senden is the second-largest town of the district of Neu-Ulm in Bavaria and is located at the border to Baden-Württemberg. The town belongs to the Donau-Iller-Nahverkehrsverbund. Senden's neighbours are Neu-Ulm in the north, Weißen ...

in 1998 (joint winner with Frank Holzke). In 1999 he relocated to Germany and qualified as a Grandmaster in 2001.

Further success

Most of Fridman's major tournament victories have occurred after the year 2000. These include outright or shared first places at

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

('B' Group) 2001,

Recklinghausen Recklinghausen (; Westphalian: ''Riäkelhusen'') is the northernmost city in the Ruhr-Area and the capital of the Recklinghausen district. It borders the rural Münsterland and is characterized by large fields and farms in the north and indus ...

Summer Open 2002,

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 Wojtaszek ...

2002,

Southampton, Bermuda Southampton Parish is one of the nine parishes of Bermuda. It is named for Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton (1573-1624). It is located in the southwest of the island chain, occupying all of the western part of the main island, except ...

2003 ('B' Group), Stratton Mountain 2004,

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

Open 2006,

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

2006,

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

2006,

Venaco Venaco is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica. Geography Venaco is on the Vecchio River with Mont Rotondo, to the west and Mont Cardo, on the north. It contains Lake Bellebone. Population Transport ...

(Corsica) 2006 and the

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

International Open of 2007. In 2019 Fridman won the Grenke Open in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

edging out

Anton Korobov Anton Sergiyovych Korobov ( ua, Антон Сергійович Коробов; born 25 June 1985) is a Ukrainian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2003. Korobov is a four-time Ukrainian champion. He was voted the be ...

Andreas Heimann Andreas Heimann (born 10 January 1992) is a German 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 so ...

Samvel Ter-Sahakyan Samvel Ter-Sahakyan ( hy, Սամվել Տեր-Սահակյան; born 19 September 1993) is an Armenian chess grandmaster. He won the 2003 Under 10 and 2009 Under 18 European Youth Chess Championship. He completed the Grandmaster requirements ...

Gukesh D Dommaraju Gukesh (born 29 May 2006), better known as Gukesh D, is an Indian chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he is the third-youngest person in history to qualify for the title of Grandmaster, which FIDE awarded him in March 2019. On 16 Oc ...

Matthias Blübaum Matthias Blübaum (born 18 April 1997) is a German chess grandmaster. He won the European Individual Chess Championship in 2022. Blübaum began playing chess at the age of six and emerged as part of the ''Prinzengruppe'' at age twelve. He earn ...

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 h ...

and Tamás Bánusz on tiebreak score, after all the mentioned players finished with score of 7½/9 points. He won the German Championship at

Bad Wörishofen Bad Wörishofen () is a spa town in the district of Unterallgäu in Bavaria, Germany, known for the water-cure (hydrotherapy) developed by Sebastian Kneipp (1821–1897), a Catholic priest who lived there for 42 years. Many of the resort hotels an ...

in 2008, at Osterburg in 2012, and at

Verden an der Aller Verden an der Aller (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Veern''), also called Verden (Aller) or simply Verden, is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, on the river Aller. It is the district town of the district of Verden in Lower Saxony and an independent munici ...

in 2014. He is a master of speed chess and, among other victories, took first places at the Essen rapid contest of 2000 and Dutch Open rapid tourney of 2008. Playing internet competitions, he has enjoyed success at the

Dos Hermanas Dos Hermanas () is a Spanish city south of Seville in Andalusia, with a population of 131,317 as of 2015. History The city's name, which means "two sisters", dates from its founding in 1248 by King Ferdinand III of Castile and honours Elvira ...

tournaments of 2004 and 2005. He competed at the

2009 Maccabiah Games The 18th Maccabiah Games ( he, המכביה ה-18 ישראל תשס"ט), were held in July 2009. According to the organizing committee these were the largest games held yet. These Games were the world's fifth-largest sporting event, behind the Ol ...

in Israel.

Team events

He first represented the Latvian men's team on board 4 at the Yerevan Oympiad of 1996 and at the

Pula Pula (; also known as Pola, it, Pola , hu, Pòla, Venetian language, Venetian; ''Pola''; Istriot language, Istriot: ''Puola'', Slovene language, Slovene: ''Pulj'') is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, and the List of cities and town ...

1997

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 ...

. He returned to the Olympiad team as first board in 2004 (

Calvià Calvià () is a municipality on the island of Majorca, part of the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. It is located in the southwestern part of the island of Majorca, between the Serra de Tramuntana and the Serra de Na Burgu ...

) and in 2006 (

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

). Having become a German citizen, he has since switched chess federations and, as incumbent national champion in 2008, was an automatic choice for the German team at the Dresden Olympiad. In 2018, Fridman won an individual gold medal as the best player on board four at the

43rd Chess Olympiad The 43rd Chess Olympiad ( ka, 43-ე საჭადრაკო ოლიმპიადა, ''43-e sach’adrak’o olimp’iada''; also known as the Batumi Chess Olympiad), organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) and c ...

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ) is the second largest city of Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast of the Black Sea in Georgia's southwest. It is situated in a subtropical zone at the foot of th ...

. Playing league chess in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

, he has been a member of the ''Mulheim Nord'' club since 2004.

Personal life

Fridman is married to

Anna Zatonskih Anna Zatonskih ( uk, Ганна Затонських; July 17, 1978) is a Ukrainian American chess player who holds the titles International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is a four-time U.S. women's champion, as well as a former Uk ...

, also a chess player. Having been based mainly in the U.S. since 2006, the couple now plan to reduce their need to travel frequently by spending more time in Germany. They have a daughter, Sofia, and a son, Joshua.Tom Braunlich (2008-06-13
"Interview with Anna Zatonskih"
United States Chess Federation. Fridman's younger brother Rafael (born 1979) also plays chess and he holds the title of International Master.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fridman, Daniel 1976 births Living people Chess grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Latvian chess players German chess players Jewish chess players Latvian Jews Latvian emigrants to Germany Competitors at the 2009 Maccabiah Games Maccabiah Games chess players Maccabiah Games competitors for Germany Sportspeople from Riga