Emil Sutovsky
Encyclopedia
Emil Sutovsky is an Israel
i chess
Grandmaster
. He is one of the several top chess grandmasters who were born in Baku
, Azerbaijan
(e.g., Garry Kasparov
, Teimour Radjabov
, Vugar Gashimov
and Vladimir Akopian).
in Medellín
in 1996, finishing first at the double-round-robin VAM Hoogeveen Tournament in 1997 (ahead of Judit Polgár
, Loek van Wely
, and Vasily Smyslov
), and winning Hastings
2000 (ahead of Alexey Dreev
, Ivan Sokolov
and Jonathan Speelman). In 2001 Sutovsky recorded perhaps the greatest individual result by an Israeli player: seeded only 35th among the 204 participants (including 143 Grandmasters) in the second European Chess Championship in Ohrid
, Macedonia
, he started with an ordinary 3.5−2.5. He then started a series of resounding victories (e.g. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1168179), and finished the tournament with 9.5−3.5, along with future FIDE world champion
Ruslan Ponomariov
, and ahead of Judit Polgár
, Nigel Short
, and many other world-class players http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/2cheurt.html.
He went on to beat Ponomariov 1.5−0.5 in a rapid chess tie-break, and was crowned European Champion.
In 2003 he tied for first with Alexander Beliavsky
in the Vidmar Memorial
. In 2007, he placed second at the 8th European Chess Championship, held in Dresden
, following a play-off with the eventual winner GM Vladislav Tkachiev
and GMs Dmitry Jakovenko
and Ivan Cheparinov.
He finished tied for first in two major open tournaments in 2005: in Gibraltar
he scored 7.5−2.5 (the same score as Levon Aronian
, Zahar Efimenko, Kiril Georgiev
, and Alexei Shirov
), and at the Aeroflot Open
in Moscow he scored 6.5−2.5 (the same as Vasily Ivanchuk, Alexander Motylev
, Andrei Kharlov, and Vladimir Akopian). His superior tie-break in the latter gave him first place (ahead of such a stars like Aronian,Radjabov,Mamedyarov,Ponomariov,Karjakin etc...) and with it an invitation to the prestigious Dortmund
tournament later in the year, in which he beat classical world champion Vladimir Kramnik
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1347860, scoring 3.5−5.5.
Sutovsky played in three FIDE Knock-out World Championships
: in 1997 he was eliminated in the first round by Guildardo Garcia; in 2000 he was eliminated in the first round by Igor Nataf; in 2001 he was eliminated in round three by eventual runner-up Vasily Ivanchuk.
He did not participate in the controversial 2004 championship
because of concerns about how its hosts, Libya
, would treat Israeli players.
He took part in FIDE World Cup 2005, FIDE World Cup 2007 and FIDE World Cup 2009
with a moderate success.
In 2007, Sutovsky, known for his vast theoretical knowledge and analytical skills became a second of US Grandmaster Gata Kamsky, helping him to win the FIDE World Cup 2007
.
In September 2009 Sutovsky won Inventi Chess Tournament in Antwerp. In 2011, he tied for 2nd-3rd with Dmitry Andreikin
in the Baku
Open.
For the last decade, Sutovsky has retained his position in top-100 (his peak was 17th place in the world in October 2004 list), crossing 2700 in
a live rating many times.
he took the gold medal for the best individual performance on board two and showed the highest TPR (Tournament Performance Rating) of 2895, among all the participants of the Olympiad. It was also the highest TPR in the history of the Chess Olympiads.
Sutovsky's uncompromising style has also resulted in a number of highly spectacular games: his sacrificial victory over Ilya Smirin
in the 2002 Israeli Championship was voted the best game of issue 86 of Chess Informant
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1278763, and his victory over Danny Gormally
at Gibraltar 2005 earned him the prize for best game http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1330256. This game was highly praised by FIDE World Champion Vishwanathan Anand, who picked this game as the best chess game he had ever seen. Sutovsky is considered to be one of the most creative chess players, since 2006 he has his own column − "Jeu créateur" ("Creative chess") in major French chess magazine Europe Échecs
.
Sutovsky virtually always plays 1.e4 with White, occasionally testing unfashionable or old-fashioned openings such as the Two Knights Defence, the King's Gambit
, and the Scotch Game
. With Black, he usually plays the Grünfeld Defence
or King's Indian Defence
against 1.d4, and Sicilian Defence
or Ruy Lopez
against 1.e4.
His romantic chess style might be linked to his hobby – Sutovsky is a profound bass-baritone
singer http://youtube.com/watch?v=JvpoYELytGA&mode=related&search=. Sutovsky is also an avid Trivia player, he is a founder and captain of chess team, which participates in What? Where? When?
tournaments. Sutovsky speaks five languages, and is widely acclaimed as one of the most intelligent personalities in the chess world.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
Grandmaster
International Grandmaster
The title Grandmaster is awarded to strong chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain....
. He is one of the several top chess grandmasters who were born in Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
(e.g., Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....
, Teimour Radjabov
Teimour Radjabov
Radjabov's knight sacrifice, 21. ... Ngxe5, was praised by several strong players for its bravery, including English grandmaster Nigel Short. Said Short of the move, "Radjabov plays very imaginatively... he just won't give up, he is extremely tenacious and will always find a way to muddy the...
, Vugar Gashimov
Vugar Gashimov
Vugar Gashimov , born July 24, 1986 in Baku, is one of the leading chess players from Azerbaijan. He is a noted player of Bullet chess and three times Azerbaijani national chess champion .He won at Athens 2005 ....
and Vladimir Akopian).
Successes
Sutovsky learned to play chess at the age of four. He achieved notable successes by winning the World Junior Chess ChampionshipWorld Junior Chess Championship
The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament organized by the World Chess Federation ....
in Medellín
Medellín
Medellín , officially the Municipio de Medellín or Municipality of Medellín, is the second largest city in Colombia. It is in the Aburrá Valley, one of the more northerly of the Andes in South America. It has a population of 2.3 million...
in 1996, finishing first at the double-round-robin VAM Hoogeveen Tournament in 1997 (ahead of Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, the youngest person ever to do so at that time.Polgár was ranked No...
, Loek van Wely
Loek van Wely
Loek van Wely is a chess Grandmaster from the Netherlands. He won the Dutch Chess Championship six times straight from 2000 through 2005. He was rated among the world's top ten in 2001. In 2002, in Maastricht, Netherlands, van Wely took on the computer program Rebel in a four-game match. The...
, and Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov was a Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, and was World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958. He was a Candidate for the World Chess Championship on eight occasions . Smyslov was twice equal first at the Soviet Championship , and his total of 17 Chess Olympiad medals won...
), and winning Hastings
Hastings International Chess Congress
The Hastings International Chess Congress is an annual chess congress which takes place in Hastings, England, around the turn of the year. The main event is the Hastings Premier tournament, which was traditionally a 10 to 16 player round-robin tournament. In 2004/05 the tournament was played in the...
2000 (ahead of Alexey Dreev
Alexey Dreev
Alexey Dreev is a chess grandmaster from Russia. His career peak Elo rating was 2705, attained in October 2003 and again in April 2005.He qualified for the Candidates Tournament in 1991, but lost his Quarter Final match to Viswanathan Anand in Madras .Then in the FIDE World Championship...
, Ivan Sokolov
Ivan Sokolov
Ivan Sokolov is a chess grandmaster born in Jajce, SFR Yugoslavia, who currently resides in the Netherlands. Sokolov won the 1988 Yugoslav Championship....
and Jonathan Speelman). In 2001 Sutovsky recorded perhaps the greatest individual result by an Israeli player: seeded only 35th among the 204 participants (including 143 Grandmasters) in the second European Chess Championship in Ohrid
Ohrid
Ohrid is a city on the eastern shore of Lake Ohrid in the Republic of Macedonia. It has about 42,000 inhabitants, making it the seventh largest city in the country. The city is the seat of Ohrid Municipality. Ohrid is notable for having once had 365 churches, one for each day of the year and has...
, Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
, he started with an ordinary 3.5−2.5. He then started a series of resounding victories (e.g. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1168179), and finished the tournament with 9.5−3.5, along with future FIDE world champion
World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....
Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Olegovich Ponomariov is a Ukrainian chess player and former FIDE World Champion.-Early career:Ponomariov was born in Horlivka in Ukraine. In 1994 he placed third in the World Under-12 Championship at the age of ten. In 1996 he won the European Under-18 Championship at the age of just...
, and ahead of Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, the youngest person ever to do so at that time.Polgár was ranked No...
, Nigel Short
Nigel Short
Nigel David Short MBE is an English chess grandmaster earning the title at the age of 19. Short is often regarded as the strongest English player of the 20th century as he was ranked third in the world, from January 1988 – July 1989 and in 1993, he challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Chess...
, and many other world-class players http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/2cheurt.html.
He went on to beat Ponomariov 1.5−0.5 in a rapid chess tie-break, and was crowned European Champion.
In 2003 he tied for first with Alexander Beliavsky
Alexander Beliavsky
-External links:...
in the Vidmar Memorial
Vidmar Memorial
The Milan Vidmar Memorial is a chess tournament commemoratingMilan Vidmar , a leading Slovenian grandmaster.The first Vidmar Memorial was held in 2–20 June 1969 in Ljubljana. In subsequent years the tournament has been held in several different Slovenian cities.-Winners:...
. In 2007, he placed second at the 8th European Chess Championship, held in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, following a play-off with the eventual winner GM Vladislav Tkachiev
Vladislav Tkachiev
-Biography:In 1982, he moved to Kazakhstan with his parents and learnt to play chess a year later. A winner of the Kazakhstani Youth Championship in 1985, he went on to represent Kazakhstan at the 1992 Chess Olympiad in Manila and was twice the national champion....
and GMs Dmitry Jakovenko
Dmitry Jakovenko
Dmitry Olegovich Jakovenko is a Russian chess grandmaster. On the March 2010 FIDE Elo rating list, Jakovenko has a rating of 2725, making him the 20th highest ranked player in the world....
and Ivan Cheparinov.
He finished tied for first in two major open tournaments in 2005: in Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
he scored 7.5−2.5 (the same score as Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian
Levon Grigor Aronian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster and the reigning World Blitz Chess Champion. On the September 2011 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2807, making him number three in the world and Armenia's number one...
, Zahar Efimenko, Kiril Georgiev
Kiril Georgiev
Kiril Dimitrov Georgiev is a Bulgarian chess master and three times the national champion. He should not be confused with fellow Bulgarian chess player Krum Georgiev....
, and Alexei Shirov
Alexei Shirov
Alexei Dmitrievich Shirov is a Soviet-born Latvian chess grandmaster. He has consistently ranked among the world's top players since the early 1990s, and reached a ranking as high as number four in 1998...
), and at the Aeroflot Open
Aeroflot Open
The Aeroflot Open is an annual open chess tournament played in Moscow and sponsored by the airline Aeroflot. It was established in 2002 and quickly grew to be the strongest open tournament. The first event had around 80 grandmasters, while in the second event 150 grandmasters participated...
in Moscow he scored 6.5−2.5 (the same as Vasily Ivanchuk, Alexander Motylev
Alexander Motylev
Alexander Anatolyevich Motylev is an International Grandmaster of chess and a former champion of Russia.He learnt how to play at the age of four and a half years and at age six took part in group instruction sessions. This is not uncommon in Russia where chess is very much part of the school...
, Andrei Kharlov, and Vladimir Akopian). His superior tie-break in the latter gave him first place (ahead of such a stars like Aronian,Radjabov,Mamedyarov,Ponomariov,Karjakin etc...) and with it an invitation to the prestigious Dortmund
Dortmund
Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
tournament later in the year, in which he beat classical world champion Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1347860, scoring 3.5−5.5.
Sutovsky played in three FIDE Knock-out World Championships
World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Men and women of any age are eligible to contest this title....
: in 1997 he was eliminated in the first round by Guildardo Garcia; in 2000 he was eliminated in the first round by Igor Nataf; in 2001 he was eliminated in round three by eventual runner-up Vasily Ivanchuk.
He did not participate in the controversial 2004 championship
FIDE World Chess Championship 2004
The FIDE World Chess Championship, 2004 was held at the Almahary Hotel in Tripoli, Libya, from June 18 to July 13.It was won by Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who beat Michael Adams in the final by a score of 4½-3½...
because of concerns about how its hosts, Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, would treat Israeli players.
He took part in FIDE World Cup 2005, FIDE World Cup 2007 and FIDE World Cup 2009
Chess World Cup 2005
The Chess World Cup 2005 served as a qualification tournament for the FIDE World Chess Championship 2007. It was held as a 128-player tournament, between 27 November and 17 December 2005, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia....
with a moderate success.
In 2007, Sutovsky, known for his vast theoretical knowledge and analytical skills became a second of US Grandmaster Gata Kamsky, helping him to win the FIDE World Cup 2007
Chess World Cup 2007
The Chess World Cup 2007 served as a qualification tournament for the World Chess Championship 2009. It was held as a 128-player single-elimination tournament, between 24 November and 16 December 2007, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia....
.
In September 2009 Sutovsky won Inventi Chess Tournament in Antwerp. In 2011, he tied for 2nd-3rd with Dmitry Andreikin
Dmitry Andreikin
Dmitry Andreikin is a Russian chess grandmaster . He won the 2010 World Junior Chess Championship.-Chess career:He tied for 1st–3rd with Konstantin Chernyshov and Alexei Kornev at Lipetsk 2006...
in the Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
Open.
For the last decade, Sutovsky has retained his position in top-100 (his peak was 17th place in the world in October 2004 list), crossing 2700 in
a live rating many times.
Olympiad career
Sutovsky represented Israel in seven Chess Olympiads from 1996 to 2010. In the 2010 Chess Olympiad39th Chess Olympiad
The 39th Chess Olympiad, organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place in 2010 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, on to...
he took the gold medal for the best individual performance on board two and showed the highest TPR (Tournament Performance Rating) of 2895, among all the participants of the Olympiad. It was also the highest TPR in the history of the Chess Olympiads.
Playing style
His uncompromising style means his tournament results can be somewhat inconsistent − Sutovsky, who has won a total of nearly 40 International Grandmaster Tournaments (more than most of the top ten players) is arguably the most volatile player among top Grandmasters.Sutovsky's uncompromising style has also resulted in a number of highly spectacular games: his sacrificial victory over Ilya Smirin
Ilya Smirin
Ilya Yulievich Smirin is a Soviet-Israeli chess Grandmaster., his Elo rating was 2650, making him the 59th-highest rated player in the world...
in the 2002 Israeli Championship was voted the best game of issue 86 of Chess Informant
Chess Informant
Chess Informant is a publishing company from Belgrade that periodically produces a book of the same name, as well as the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings, Encyclopaedia of Chess Endings, Opening Monographs, other print publications, and software Chess Informant (Šahovski Informator) is a...
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1278763, and his victory over Danny Gormally
Danny Gormally
Danny Gormally , is a British chess Grandmaster. On the July 2011 FIDE rating list his Elo rating was 2519. His peak rating was 2573 on the January 2006 rating list. Nationally he is ranked 15th, and is the 14th strongest of England's 26 grandmasters...
at Gibraltar 2005 earned him the prize for best game http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1330256. This game was highly praised by FIDE World Champion Vishwanathan Anand, who picked this game as the best chess game he had ever seen. Sutovsky is considered to be one of the most creative chess players, since 2006 he has his own column − "Jeu créateur" ("Creative chess") in major French chess magazine Europe Échecs
Europe Échecs
Europe Échecs is a monthly French-language chess magazine.Founded in 1959 by Raoul Bertolo, who died in 1991 and who was at the time president of the Fédération française des échecs, it succeeded l'Échiquier de Turenne. It is the oldest chess magazine in France still running, and is now edited by...
.
Sutovsky virtually always plays 1.e4 with White, occasionally testing unfashionable or old-fashioned openings such as the Two Knights Defence, the King's Gambit
King's Gambit
The King's Gambit is a chess opening that begins with the moves:White offers a pawn to divert the Black e-pawn so as to build a strong centre with d2–d4...
, and the Scotch Game
Scotch Game
The Scotch Game is a chess opening that begins with the movesWhite aims to dominate the centre by exchanging his d-pawn for Black's e-pawn. Black usually plays 3...exd4, as he has no good way to maintain his pawn on e5...
. With Black, he usually plays the Grünfeld Defence
Grünfeld Defence
The Grünfeld Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:The first instance of this opening is in an 1855 game by Moheschunder Bannerjee, an Indian player who had transitioned from Indian chess rules, playing black against John Cochrane in Calcutta, in May 1855: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4...
or King's Indian Defence
King's Indian Defence
The King's Indian Defence is a common chess opening. It arises after the moves:Black intends to follow up with 3...Bg7 and 4...d6.The Grünfeld Defence arises when Black plays 3...d5 instead, and is considered a separate opening...
against 1.d4, and Sicilian Defence
Sicilian Defence
The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the moves:The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4...
or Ruy Lopez
Ruy Lopez
The Ruy Lopez, also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves:-History:The opening is named after the 16th century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, who made a systematic study of this and other openings in the 150-page book on chess Libro del...
against 1.e4.
His romantic chess style might be linked to his hobby – Sutovsky is a profound bass-baritone
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
singer http://youtube.com/watch?v=JvpoYELytGA&mode=related&search=. Sutovsky is also an avid Trivia player, he is a founder and captain of chess team, which participates in What? Where? When?
What? Where? When?
What? Where? When? is an intellectual game show well known in Russian-language media and other CIS states. It is produced for television by TV Igra on the Russian Channel One and also exists as a competitive game played in clubs organized by the ....
tournaments. Sutovsky speaks five languages, and is widely acclaimed as one of the most intelligent personalities in the chess world.
External links
- Emil Sutovsky download 452 of his games in pgn format.
- Supreme Chess bio