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Wednesday, 16 April 2008 |
 As one of the participants of both World Championship tournaments San Luis 2005 and Mexico 2007, we should definitely consider Peter Svidler from Russia as one of the favorites in this first Grand Prix Series. Not to mention the fact that Svidler, who lives in St. Petersburg, has won the Russian Championship no less than four times.
Peter Svidler was born June 17, 1976 in St. Petersburg (Leningrad). He learned to play chess when he was six years old. He became a Grandmaster in 1994, the same year he won his first Russian Championship. He came shared second (together with Vishwanathan Anand) at the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 in San Luis.
In 2004, Svidler was the topscorer of the Russian team at the Chess Olympiad in Calvia, with a 2811 tournament performance rating. In 2006 he shared tournament victory with Kramnik in Dortmund. Half a year later he finished sixth at the Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee and then fifth at the Morelia/Linares tournament. In September last year he finished fifth out of eight players in Mexico City, at the FIDE World Championship Tournament.
Svidler isn't a bad blitz player either; in 2006 he finished second behind Alexander Grischuk at the World Blitz Championship in Rishon LeZion, Israel.
Svidler's handling of the English language is astonishing, using a large vocabulary and an impeccable accent. In chess he's especially dangerous with the White colours, using main lines after starting the game with the king's pawn, and with Black is known to be extremely solid. His hobbies are reading, listening to music, billiards and cricket.
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