Anish Giri

Anish Giri
Country	Netherlands
Born	June 28, 1994 (1994-06-28) (age 16) Saint Petersburg, Russia
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2686 (No. 52 on the January 2011 FIDE ratings list)
Peak rating	2686 (January 2011)

Anish Giri (born June 28, 1994)^[1] is a chess prodigy. He met his final grandmaster norm at the age of 14 years, 7 months and 2 days when he beat Venezuelan GM Eduardo Iturrizaga in the C Group of the 2009 Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands.^[2]

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 the Russian Chess Federation; currently he is affiliated with the Dutch Chess Federation).

[edit] Family

Anish is the son of a Nepalese father (Sanjay Giri), and a Russian mother (Olga Giri). Anish was born in St. Petersburg, Russia on 28 June 1994. In 2002, he moved to Japan with his parents. Since then he had been residing in Japan, and visiting St. Petersburg regularly. Since February 2008, Anish and his family have been living in the Netherlands, in the Dutch city of Rijswijk where his father is working in a research and consulting foundation (Deltares). He has two sisters, Natasha and Ayusha.

[edit] Chess activity

Anish's first club was a local youth sport club 'DYUSH-2' in St. Petersburg, Russia. His trainers in this club were Asya Kovalyova and Andrei Praslov. He was a member of the Japan Chess Association and the Sapporo Chess Club during his stay in Japan. He became Russian champion (U12) while he was living in Japan.

Anish has been playing for SK Turm Emsdetten since 2008 in the German Chess Bundesliga (the premier league of team chess in Germany). He is the youngest ever player in the history of this league. Furthermore, he is affiliated with several Dutch chess clubs, including the Hilversum Chess Society (HSG) and the Delft Chess Club. He plays in the French league (TOP-16) for l'Echiquier Châlonnais.

He does not have intensive chess training facilities, mostly working by himself using chess programs and books at his leisure. Recently, the Dutch Chess Federation has started to provide him with some training sessions.

Major events and achievements

- In September 2009 he won at Haaksbergen the closed Dutch Championship, making him the youngest player to win this championship to date.

- In January 2010, aged 15, he competed in the Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee winning the B-group.^[3]

- In May 2010 it was revealed that Giri had aided Viswanathan Anand in preparation for the World Chess Championship 2010 against challenger Veselin Topalov. Anand won the match 6.5-5.5 to retain the title.^[4][5]

- At the end of May 2010, Giri convincingly won the 18th annual Sigeman & Co. Tournament with a performance rating of 2936.^[6]

- In August 2010, he was one of the best scorers for the Rising Stars team during the NH tournament against the Experienced team, but was unable to qualify for the Amber tournament, losing in tie break against Nakamura.^[7]

- In October 2010, Giri won bronze at the Chess Olympiad at Khanty-Mansiysk, during his first Olympiad appearance. Giri had a performance rating of 2730, playing board 4 for the Dutch team.

- In Jan 2011, Giri beat world number 1 Magnus Carlsen (ELO 2814) with Black in 22 moves at the Wijk Aan Zee chess tournament (category 20).

[edit] Schooling

Giri is currently studying at the Grotius College in Delft. Unlike most other prodigies, he is a regular college student following classes every day, save for some limited absences allowed by the school during major tournaments and events. Thus, playing chess is still a part-time activity for Giri. His favorite subjects include physics, mathematics, geography and history.

[edit] Other interests and skills

Giri speaks Russian, English, Dutch, Japanese and a little bit of Nepalese. In school, he studies German as well. He likes to play football and table tennis.

Recently Giri contracted a new interest — writing articles and annotating top games. He annotated a number of top games for the popular chess site ChessBase,^[8] and has written several articles, including analyses of his own games for chess magazines, such as New in Chess, 64 (chess magazine), and Schach Magazin 64.

Personal web-site of Anish Giri

• http://www.anishgiri.nl
• http://www.anishgiri.eu

I am not clear:

Is he (the star Giri) a Nepalese Passport holder or not? I wish he is proud to be a Nepalese Passport holder rather than a Russian passport holder or Dutch passport holder or Japanese passport holder or American passport holder or Australian passport holder.

An irrelevant, but interesting discussion issue is that Father Giri is a nepalese scholar serving foreigners like many other nepalese do who are spread around the world. How a nepalese father met a russain mother? May be Father Giri won Nepalese government scholarship to study in Russia, where he met and married to Olga. No comment on this marriage. The government scholarship requires Father Giri to return back and serve home country. Luckily, Nepal is in chaos. It can not force anyone to return back to serve the country. Father Giri is enjoying the freedom gifted by the political chao.

After finding his russian-born son a highly tallented young boy, Russia should have tried to keep him in Russia. May be, his Russian mother also does not want to make the son Giri a nepalese man. Father Giri and Mother Giri might have compromised to settle a third neutral country - the Deutshland, where this rising star Giri is flourishing.

An Indian news channel once aired that Father Giri as an Indian origin man, claiming Star Giri as a symbol of Indian Pride. People laughed at it, but it was indeed occured. I guess, Father Giri must be a patriotic nepalese (despite being a bahun, he seems to be an honest and nepal-loving nepalese, much much better personality than any bahun leaders of nepal). If challenged, Father Giri will display his nepalese passport at any moment. This is my belief, but I am not sure about his family, wife and kids. For us, Star Giri is indifferent to Justin Bieber if he did not have that half-blood relation to Nepal through his patriot father Giri. Therefore, without knowing the true status of the star Giri, his faith and affiliation, how can I follow the blind stupidity of that indian news channel ?