About

Saint Louis 2015, with Sopiko to the playing venue

Anish Giri, son of a Nepalese father and Russian mother, was born 28. June 1994 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He is an active chess player with the title of International Grandmaster. He met his final Grandmaster norm at the age of 14 years, 7 months and 2 days in the C Group of the 2009 Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. He was the youngest GM in the World at that time. He is the youngest ever Grandmaster in the chess history of Soviet Union/Russia and the Netherlands (when he achieved his third GM norm, he was affiliated with Russian Chess Federation; currently he is affiliated with Dutch Chess Federation).

As a polyglot, he perfectly masters Russian, English, and Dutch, and has a good knowledge of Japanese, Nepalese and German. He spent the first seven years of his life in St. Petersburg, before moving to Sapporo (Japan) with his family in 2002. He, a Russian citizen with Nepalese origin, came to the Netherlands with his family in 2008. Since then, he has been representing the Netherlands in the chess arena.

Chess activity

Anish started to play chess when he was 6-year-old. Anish’s first club was a local youth sport club ‘DYUSH-2’ in St. Petersburg, Russia. He was a member of the Japan Chess Association and Sapporo Chess Club during his stay in Japan. Typically he became Russian champion (U12) while he was living in Japan.

Anish played in the German Chess Bundesliga, the French League, the Russian League, the Spanish League and – naturally – the Dutch League.

Originally Anish did not have intensive chess training facilities, he had mostly been working by himself. The Dutch Olympic Committee and KNSB (Dutch Chess Federation) provided him support for some training sessions, when he was still young.

In 2010 and 2012 Anish had an opportunity to work briefly with World Champion Viswanathan Anand in preparation for the World Chess Championship 2010 and 2012 against challengers Veselin Topalov and Boris Gelfand respectively. After he had reached the Top-10 in the world, Anish worked with many strong GM’s, among others with another World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik. Currently Dutch GM Erwin l’Ami is Anish’s main second. He used to work closely with Belgium GM Vladimir Chuchelov and Ukrainian GM Vladimir Tukmakov as well.

Here are some major events and achievements of Anish:

  • Russian Champion under 12 in 2006.
  • Hilversum Chess Tournament in 2008 (shared winner, and earned first GM norm).
  • Groningen Chess Tournament in 2008 (4th place, and earned second GM norm).
  • Corus Chess Tournament C-group in 2009 (shared 2nd place, and earned third GM norm).
  • Dutch Champion in 2009 (the youngest ever Dutch Champion).
  • Corus Chess Tournament B-group in 2010 (winner, qualified for A-group).
  • 18th Sigeman & Co Tournament in 2010 (winner with a performance rating of 2936).
  • NH Tournament between Rising Stars and Experience teams in 2010 (shared best scorer for Rising Star team, lost tie breaker for the Amber qualification).
  • Chess Olympiad in 2010 (Bronze medal on Board 4).
  • At his debut appearance in the Tata Steel Masters in 2011, Anish scored 6½/13 (+2–2=9) and defeated Magnus Carlsen with Black in 22 moves.
  • 19th Sigeman & Co Tournament in 2011 (shared first place).
  • Dutch Champion 2011.
  • 54th Reggio Emilia Chess Tournament 2011-2012 (the youngest ever winner).
  • Dutch Champion 2012.
  • Biel Chess Tournament 2012 (shared third place).
  • World Cities Chess Championship 2012 in U.A.E (his team City Hoogeveen won the gold medal).
  • 26th edition of the traditional tournament in León, Magistral Ciudad de León (won the match against Vassily Ivanchuk).
  • He was nominated to participate in prestigious FIDE Grand Prix Series 2012-2013.
  • Winner 2012 Reggio Emilia chess tournament, claimed his third Dutch championship and shared third place at the strong Biel Chess Festival. His solid improvement continued with fourth place at the Reykjavik Open and a match victory against Vassily Ivanchuk at Leon in 2013.
  • Giri took part in the 2012/13 FIDE Grand Prix cycle, but failed to qualify for the Candidates Tournament.
  • In 2014 Giri published his first book, My Junior Years In 20 Games.
  • In 2014 Giri shared second place at the Tata Steel tournament, won individual bronze for his first board performance at the 41st Chess Olympiad in Tromso and finished second at the strong Qatar Masters Open.
  • Giri participated in the 2014/15 FIDE Grand Prix cycle, but again failed to qualify for the Candidates Tournament.
  • In March 2016, Giri participated in the Candidates Tournament 2016 in Moscow, Russia, where he drew all 14 games.
  • Since 2016, Giri has been sponsored by the proprietary trading firm Optiver.
  • In April 2017, Giri won the Reykjavik Open with a score of 8½/10 (+7–0=3).
  • Giri started off 2018 by placing joint-first with Carlsen on a score of 9/13 (+5–0=8) at the 80th Tata Steel Masters. He was defeated in the blitz tie-break by Carlsen 1½–½.
  • In April 2018, he participated in the fifth edition of Shamkir Chess, finishing sixth with a score of 4½/9 (+1–1=7).
  • In July 2018, he competed in the 46th Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting, placing second with a score of 4/7 (+2–1=4).
  • In November 2018, he shared first in the 2nd Dute Cup in Shenzhen, together with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ding Liren and took second place on tie-break.
  • Giri competed in the 81st Tata Steel Masters in January 2019, placing clear second with 8½/13 (+5−1=7), after losing to Ian Nepomniachtchi in the first round.
  • In March 2019, Giri won the 3rd edition of the Shenzhen Masters (Dute Cup), placing clear first with 6½/10 (+3−0=7).
  • In May, Giri participated in the Moscow FIDE Grand Prix tournament, which is part of the qualification cycle for the 2020 World Chess Championship. The tournament was a 16-player event, and he was eliminated from the tournament after an upset loss to the lowest ranked player, GM Daniil Dubov, in the first round.
  • In December, 2019, Anish Giri qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2020 as a player with the highest FIDE rating for the 12 months period (January — December, 2019). In the rating list, Giri led Maxime Vachier-Lagrave by the average of 6 points.
  • In January 2020 Anish finished the 82nd Tata Steel Chess Tournament with a score of 6½ – 13 (+1, -1, =11), finishing shared 6th-9th place.
  • In March 2020 Anish played his second Candidates Tournament, in Yekaterinenburg – Russia, an event that was stopped halfway due to the Covid-19 Pandemic (and the closing if all air traffic in Russia starting from 27. March) . The tournament was halfway at that moment. Anish had 3½-7 (+1, -1, =5), sharing 3th – 6th place. Tournament leaders are Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ian Nepomniachtchi (4½ – 7).
  • The Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020 led to many new online initiatives. Anish played in several of the events, a.o. winning the Mr. Dodgy Invitational, a KO Blitz event in which he defeated GM David Navara in the final (7-2). In the Magnus Carlsen Chessable Masters Tournament, Anish ….. (after winning his group unbeaten with 6-10, and beating Alexander Grischuk in the quarterfinals)….

Schooling

In June 2013, Giri finished his highschool, by passing the national exam at the Grotius College in Delft. His favorite subjects were physics and mathematics, although he likes history, geography, and biology as well.

Unlike most other prodigies, Giri was a regular school pupil, following classes every day apart from some limited absences allowed by the school during major tournaments and events. After having finished his school exams, Anish became a professional chess player.

Anish likes to play table tennis and football if time allows. He also likes writing articles and annotating games. Apart from contributing to his own websites with his articles and annotations, he has been writing and annotating for many popular chess websites and magazines such as ChessBase, Chessvibes, New in Chess, 64 (Russian chess magazine), the German magazine Schach Magazin 64 and so on.

Since February 2013, he has been contributing to one of the best chess magazines New In Chess in the capacity of contributing editor.

Anish is very active on the social media, especially on Twitter and Instagram.

Family

Anish’s father, Sanjay Giri, is Nepalese. His mother, Olga Giri, is a Russian citizen. His father is a Research Engineer and working in a Dutch organization in Delft. His mother is a civil engineer by education, and a housewife. Anish has two younger sisters: Natasha Giri and Ayusha Giri.

Anish married WGM Sopiko Guramishvili on 18. July 2015. They live in The Hague. On October 3, 2016, while Anish was playing the Tal Memorial, their son Daniel was born.

References