Peter Svidler

Peter Veniaminovich Svidler (Russian: Пётр Вениами́нович Сви́длер; Pyotr Veniaminovich Svidler, born June 17, 1976, in Leningrad) is a Russian chess Grandmaster. He is six-time Russian champion (1994, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2008, 2011). He placed shared second (together with Viswanathan Anand) in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 with 8½ points out of 14 games, finishing 1½ points behind the winner, Veselin Topalov. In the World Chess Championship 2007, he placed 5th among the eight players. He has won five team gold medals and one individual bronze medal at Chess Olympiads.

Svidler learned to play chess when he was six years old. In 1992, he tied for 1st–2nd with Ragim Gasimov in the USSR Junior Open Chess Championship. He became Grandmaster in 1994.

In 2001, he reached the semifinals of the FIDE World Championship. Andrei Lukin is his coach.

Svidler is a noted proponent of Fischer Random Chess (also called Chess960). He won the first edition of the Chess960 Open held in Mainz, Germany. At the 2003 Mainz Chess Classic, he became Chess960 World Champion by beating Péter Lékó in an eight-game match. He successfully defended his title twice, defeating Levon Aronian in 2004 and Zoltán Almási in 2005, before losing it to Aronian in 2006.

In an interview given for World Chess Network after the World Chess Championship 2005 held in San Luis, he said: "I only prepared seriously for San Luis, and I think it has paid off. But in general I spend most of my spare time with my wife and kids, so my relative success in 2005 was a pleasant surprise." His San Luis result earned him direct entry to the World Chess Championship 2007. In that tournament he scored 6½ out of 14, placing 5th out of eight players.

In 2006 he went second behind Alexander Grischuk at the World Blitz Championship in Rishon Lezion, Israel, with 10½ points out of 15 games. He also finished tied for first with Vladimir Kramnik at the Dortmund 2006.

In February 2009 he came first at the 7th Gibtelecom Masters in Gibraltar Chess Festival.

Svidler is a fan of cricket; his handle on the Internet Chess Club server is Tendulkar.

Recently Svidler won the Chess World Cup 2011 in Khanty–Mansiysk, defeating Alexander Grischuk in the finals 2½–1½.