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Wednesday, 16 April 2008 |
It's no surprise that David Navara was nominated by the host city of the 6th Grand Prix Tournament, Karlovy Vary, nor would it be any surprise to see Navara in the participants list after his excellent performance at the 2007 Corus Chess Tournament. There, he was the only player who drew with Black against Anand, Kramnik and Topalov! (He finished on a very decent shared 7th place.)
David Navara, the strongest Czech chess player since Vlastimil Hort, was born March 27, 1985 in Prague. He was coached by GMs Josef Pribyl, Ludek Pachman and Vlastimil Jansa (who will be Navara's second in Baku), and soon started to win prizes, such as the championships of the Czech Republic in his age category in the years 1993-95.
In 1997, Navara finished third at the World Championship under-12, and in 1998 he came in second in the under-14 section. At 14, he got the IM title.
In 2000, 15 years old, he was 6th at the European Championship under 20 and 5th at the World Championship under 18 years.
In 2001, Navara scored his first great achievement: 7/9 in the European Team Championships in Léon, Spain (a rating performance of 2775!). One year later, six days before his 17th birthday, he received the Grandmaster title.
At the 2002 Bled Olympiad, Navara scored a good 7.5/11 on board 3. In the same year he won the open tournament in Polanica Zdrój and at the 2004 European Individual Chess Championship in Turkey he finished 6th, drawing against the eventual champion Vassily Ivanchuk.
Navara won the Czech Chess Championship in 2004 and 2005.
In 2005, Navara participated in the World Chess Cup, but was eliminated by Predrag Nikolic in the first round. However, in May 2006 he was very successful at the Chess Olympiad in Turin, scoring 8.5 out of 12 against world-class competition.
His participation in the 2007 Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee was as a replacement for Alexander Morozevich, but as mentioned above, he more than held his own with a fine 6.5/13 score and joint 7th place.
In August 2007 Navara finished first on progressive tiebreak in the big Ordix Rapid Open in Mainz, with a score of 9.5/11. In September he played in the Karlovy Vary tournament, where he finished 3rd, a half a point behind co-winners Ponomariov and Movsesian.
In the November-December 2007 FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Navara beat the Ivanov in the first round but was then defeated in the tie-breaks by Rublevsky.
David Navara is extremely modest, polite and charming. He studies Logic at the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Charles University in Prague. He likes to read and to listen to music.
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