Kaido Külaots (born 28 February 1976) is an

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

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. He was 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 2001.

Biography

He has won the

Estonian Chess Championship The Estonian Chess Championship is played to determine the Estonian champion in chess. The first unofficial championship in Estonia was held in 1903 and was organized by a chess club from Tallinn (then Reval, Russian Empire). After World War I, ...

in 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2020 and 2023. Külaots has represented Estonia in the

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 ...

(in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2018) and 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 ...

(in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2019). He tied for 1st–2nd with Evgeny Alekseev at the Rector Cup,

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

2003 and with Vladislav Nevednichy at

Paks Paks is a small town in Tolna (county), Tolna county, in the south of Hungary, on the right bank of the Danube River, 100 km south of Budapest. Paks as a former agricultural settlement is now the home of the only Hungarian Paks Nuclear Pow ...

2003, tied for 1st–6th with

Evgeniy Najer Evgeniy Yuryevich Najer (; born 22 June 1977) is a Russian chess grandmaster and the European champion of 2015. He is also one of the coaches of the Russian women's national team. Career He won the Moscow City Chess Championship in 1998 and 2 ...

, Artyom Timofeev, Zoltan Gyimesi, Sergey Grigoriants and Oleg Korneev at the Cappelle-la-Grande Open 2004, tied for 1st–2nd with Artjom Smirnov at the Paul Keres Chess Festival in Tallinn 2004, came 2nd behind Sergei Tiviakov and ahead of Oleg Korneev at the

Gausdal Gausdal is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Segelstad bru. Other villages in Gausdal include Follebu, Forse ...

Classics 2005, came 1st at the Heart of Finland Open in

Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Central Finland. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Jyväskylä is approximately , while the Jyväskylä sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately ...

2008, tied for 1st–3rd with Róbert Ruck and Gabor Papp at the 1st Gedeon Barcza Memorial 2008, tied for 3rd–6th with

Šarūnas Šulskis Šarūnas Šulskis (born 26 November 1972) is a Lithuanian chess Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (1996). Chess career He won the Lithuanian Chess Championship on five occasions: in 1991, 1994, 1998 (shared with Vidmantas Mališauskas), 2007 and ...

, Tiger Hillarp Persson and

Hans Tikkanen Hans Christian Tikkanen (born 6 February 1985 in Karlstad) is a Swedish chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster. He is a five-time Swedish Chess Champion. Chess career He won the Swedish Junior Chess Championship in 2002. In 2010 he won the Lithu ...

at Borup 2010 and won the 1st Festival Gif-sur-Yvette 2010. Külaots competed in the FIDE World Cup in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

as a FIDE nominee. Here he was knocked out in the first round after losing to Nikita Vitiugov by ½–1½. In February 2019 Külaots won the Aeroflot Open edging out Haik Martirosyan on tiebreak, after both players scored 7/9 points. Thanks to this victory, Külaots earned an invitation to play in the

Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting The Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting is an open chess tournament held every summer in Dortmund, Germany. Until 2020, Dortmund was an invite-only event, with the exception that one slot at Dortmund was awarded to the winner of the annual Aeroflot ...

. Külaots is one of the few players to have a positive lifetime record against World Champion

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...

.Classical games: Kaido Kulaots beat Magnus Carlsen 2 to 1, with 3 draws
www.chessgames.com

References

External links

Kaido Kulaots
chess games at 365Chess.com *
Kaido Kulaots
at Chessmetrics
Kaido Külaots - Yearbook Surveys - New In Chess
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kulaots, Kaido 1976 births Living people Estonian chess players Chess Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors University of Tartu alumni Sportspeople from Pärnu