GM Giri started playing chess at age 7, and a few years later won the Russian U12 championship. He gained his first GM norm by winning the Intomart GfK Open in Hilversum in 2008, his second GM norm at Groningen Chess Festival (2009) and his third GM norm title when he came second at the Corus (Group C) (2009) tournament, thus becoming the youngest Grand Master at the time in the world at the age of 14 years 7 months and 2 days. Furthermore he gained the GM title without acquiring an IM title first. Later that year, Giri placed clear first with 6/8 at the Dutch Championship (2009). He started off 2010 with a bang by winning the Corus (B Group) (2010) tournament, thereby earning an invitation to the A-division of the 2011 event, followed it up in May 2010 by winning the Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament (2010) with 4.5/5 and a 2936 performance rating and in June 2010 by coming second to Jan Smeets in the Dutch Championship (2010). The Chess Olympiad (2010) was a successful event for Giri, winning the bronze medal by scoring 8/11 and producing a 2730 performance on board four for the Netherlands. He scored 3rd in the quadrangular Unive Tournament (2010) in October 2010. His debut in the Tata Steel (2011) super tournament was mildly auspicious, finishing in the middle of the table with 6.5/13 (+2 -2 =9) and a 2744 performance rating, defeating Magnus Carlsen and Wang Hao in their individual encounters. He came 3rd with 5/10 in his inaugural Dortmund (2011), and won the Dutch Championship (2011) with a round to spare. In late 2011, he came second behind Vladimir Kramnik at the 15th Unive (Crown Group) (2011) with 3/6. Giri finished 2011 as the lowest rated entrant in the category 20 Reggio Emilia (2011), and started 2012 by emerging as the outright winner of that tournament with 6/10 (+4 -2 =4, TPR 2822), a half point ahead of Alexander Morozevich, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. Unfortunately for him, his recent gains were undone in his first tournament of 2012, when he placed equal last in the category 21 Tata Steel (2012) with 4.5/13 (+2 -6 =5; TPR 2648), although he won the Dutch Championship (2012) with a round to spare to restore him to the 2700 club. A strong =3rd at the Grandmaster tournament in the Biel Chess Festival (2012) considerably boosted his stocks, restoring him to his peak rating. He also represented the Netherlands on board 1 at the Chess Olympiad (2012) in Istanbul, scoring 4/7 at rating par. Giri's second Grand Prix contest at the FIDE Grand Prix Zug (2013) also did not produce the desired outcome, his 5/11 (+0 -1 =10) virtually eliminating him from contention for the top 2 needed to qualify for the Candidates.
Giri plays for SK Turm Emsdetten in the German Bundeslige, and is apparently the youngest player to have participated in this very powerful league. In the 2012 European national club championship season, Giri's performances in the Bundesliga, and in the Dutch and Russian team competitions maintained par with his rating. However, he had a disastrous outing at the 13th European Individual Championship (2012), scoring 6.5/11 and shedding 27 points to push him below the 2700 rating level for the first time since breaching it. The FIDE Grand Prix London (2012) was the first in the six legs of the 2012-13 Grand Prix series; Giri participated as an AGON nominee but scored only 4/11, accumulating only 15 GP points that accrue to shared 10th and 11th place. At the end of 2012, he played top board for the Hoogoven team at the World Cities Team Championship (2012), and lead the team to victory in the final, thereby claiming the Sheikh Zayed Cup. The beginning of 2013 saw him play at the category 20 Tata Steel (2013), where he placed =8th, scoring 6/13, followed by =4th with 7.5/10 at the Reykjavik Open (2013), half a point behind the three co-leaders.
Giri assisted Viswanathan Anand in his World Championship title defence against Veselin Topalov in April 2010. He currently lives in Holland with his Nepalese father Sanjay Giri (a Research Scientist) and Russian mother, Olga Giri. Anish is a typical Hindu name used in parts of the Hinduism-dominated countries of India and Nepal.
As of 1 May 2013, Giri's rating is 2734, making him the top player in the Netherlands, the top Junior (U20) in the world, and number 20 player overall in the world. His FIDE ratings in rapid are 2712 (world #28) and 2685 (world #49) respectively.
Anish's official website: http://anishgiri.nl/ live rating: http://www.2700chess.com/
Wikipedia article: Anish Giri
