Arkadij Naiditsch | |
|---|---|
 Naiditsch in 2016 | |
| Full name | Arkadi Mixayloviç Naydiç |
| Country | Latvia (until 1997) Germany (1998–2015)[1] Azerbaijan (2015–2024)[2] Bulgaria (since 2024) |
| Born | (1985-10-25)25 October 1985 (age 39) Riga,Latvian SSR,Soviet Union |
| Title | Grandmaster (1999) |
| FIDE rating | 2630 (March 2025) |
| Peak rating | 2737 (December 2013)[3] |
| Peak ranking | No. 18 (December 2013) |
Arkadij Naiditsch (Azerbaijani:Arkadi Naydiç; born 25 October 1985) is aLatvian-Germanchessgrandmaster who currently representsBulgaria after previously representing Latvia (until 1997), Germany (1998–2015) andAzerbaijan (2015-2024).
In 1995 he won theEuropean Under-10 championship inVerdun.
Naiditsch was the winner of theDortmund Sparkassen 2005 Tournament, ahead of higher-rated and well-known players such asLoek van Wely,Veselin Topalov,Peter Svidler,Vladimir Kramnik,Michael Adams, andPeter Leko.[4] In 2007, he won theGerman national championship based inBad Königshofen.
In 2011 he won the 15th International Neckar Open with a score of 8½/9. This achievement enabled him to cross the 2700Elo rating mark.[5] In the same year Naiditsch played on the top board for the German team that won the gold medal at theEuropean Team Chess Championship inPorto Carras.
Naiditsch won the Grandmaster Group B of theTata Steel Chess Tournament 2013 inWijk aan Zee on tiebreak overRichárd Rapport after both finished on 9/13.[6] This victory qualified him for the Tata Steel Group A of 2014 (later renamed 'Tata Steel Masters').[7]In August 2014 he won with the black pieces against World ChampionMagnus Carlsen, playing first board for the German team in the41st Chess Olympiad inTromsø. The following month Naiditsch won the 2ndGrenke Chess Classic tournament inBaden-Baden. In December of the same year, he finished first in the 38thZurich Christmas Open.[8]
In January 2015 he tied for 1st–5th withAlexander Donchenko,Eduardo Iturrizaga, Matthias Dann andMiloš Pavlović in the Masters section of theBasel Chess Festival, winning the tournament on best tiebreak score.[9]Naiditsch tied for first with Magnus Carlsen in the 3rd Grenke Chess Classic in February 2015, finishing second after a five-gameblitz playoff, which ended with anarmageddon game.[10]
In July 2015 he switched to the Azerbaijani Chess Federation.[2] On 30 December 2015 Naiditsch won for the second consecutive year the Zurich Christmas Open.[11] Six days later, he won also the Basel Chess Festival for the second year in a row.[12]
In 2024, he switched his federation toBulgaria and represented the Bulgarian national team at the45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary.[13][14]
In October 2014, Naiditsch married Ukrainian-Israeli chess playerIMYuliya Shvayger.[15] As of 2015, he lives inBaku with his family.[16]
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