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Rafael Leitao
R Leitao 
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons 

Number of games in database: 878
Years covered: 1989 to 2024
Last FIDE rating: 2596 (2620 rapid, 2603 blitz)
Highest rating achieved in database: 2652
Overall record: +346 -107 =370 (64.5%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games in the database. 55 exhibition games, blitz/rapid, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS
With the White pieces:
 Sicilian (48) 
    B90 B27 B42 B84 B47
 Queen's Gambit Declined (46) 
    D35 D37 D30 D31 D38
 King's Indian (44) 
    E73 E76 E77 E75 E60
 Slav (44) 
    D11 D12 D10 D15 D16
 Grunfeld (38) 
    D76 D82 D80 D85 D83
 Modern Benoni (32) 
    A57 A56 A62 A70 A67
With the Black pieces:
 Sicilian (179) 
    B46 B90 B92 B22 B30
 Sicilian Najdorf (52) 
    B90 B92 B96 B91 B93
 Sicilian Taimanov (41) 
    B46 B47 B48
 Nimzo Indian (32) 
    E21 E39 E45 E46 E43
 King's Indian (26) 
    E92 E66 E99 E97 E75
 Slav (21) 
    D12 D11 D10 D15 D17
Repertoire Explorer

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   R Leitao vs A Baburin, 1998 1-0
   J Rohl vs R Leitao, 1998 0-1
   R Leitao vs A Diamant, 2009 1-0
   R Leitao vs M Robledo Gonzales, 2009 1-0
   G Vescovi vs R Leitao, 1998 0-1
   R Leitao vs F de Cresce El Debs, 2010 1-0
   Lautier vs R Leitao, 2000 0-1
   Glek vs R Leitao, 1999 1/2-1/2
   R Leitao vs Kasimdzhanov, 1999 1-0
   R Leitao vs F de Cresce El Debs, 2015 1-0

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: [what is this?]
   FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (1999)
   FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2000)
   FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament (2004)

NOTABLE TOURNAMENTS: [what is this?]
   65th Brazilian Championship (1998)
   Pan-American Championship U18 (1996)
   Brazilian Championship 1997 (1998)
   Brazilian Championship (2011)
   Antonio Rocha Memorial (2011)
   Brazilian Championship (2013)
   Brazilian Championship 2014 (2015)
   Najdorf Memorial K.O. qualification (2000)
   Brazilian Championship 2004 (2005)
   Copa ENTEL (2004)
   II Copa ENTEL (2005)
   World Youth Championship (Under-14) (1993)
   American Continental (2014)
   American Continental (2005)
   Turin Olympiad (2006)

GAME COLLECTIONS: [what is this?]
   Capablanca Memorial (Elite) 2003 by Tabanus
   1999 Hoogovens (group B) by gauer
   Hoogovens Group B 1999 by Tabanus
   2010 Brazilian championship by gauer
   Karpov Poikovsky 2001 by Tabanus
   2012 Americas Continental Championship by gauer

RECENT GAMES:
   🏆 Manaus Chess Classic
   R Leitao vs L do Valle Cardoso (Oct-17-24) 1-0
   R Molina vs R Leitao (Oct-14-24) 1/2-1/2
   R Leitao vs E Matsuura (Oct-14-24) 1-0
   R Leitao vs J Sunye Neto (Oct-13-24) 1-0
   N Felipe Filgueiras vs R Leitao (Oct-12-24) 0-1

Search Sacrifice Explorer for Rafael Leitao
Search Google for Rafael Leitao
FIDE player card for Rafael Leitao

RAFAEL LEITAO
(born Dec-28-1979, 45 years old) Brazil

[what is this?]

He was born in Sao Luis. This GM (1998) and GMC won the 1991 U-12 World Youth Chess at Warsaw ahead of Peter Leko (milesimum score), and the 1996 U-18 World Youth Chess Championship at Cala Galdana ahead of Rustam Kasimdzhanov. He missed out on the 1989 U10 World Championship due to a dubious tiebreak system which gave the title to the player who had the strongest first round opponent. He was Brazilian champion in 1996, 1997, 1998, 2004, 2011 and 2013 (the 2nd one aka the 80th Brazilian Championship). A strong European result for him in adult age was sharing 1st place with Jeroen Piket and Zurab Azmaiparashvili at Antwerp Hoogovens open 1998 (Lost Boys event). In 2011 he won the IM Antonio Rocha mem. http://www.chess-results.com/tnr426... Far from Europe, he keeps a high-performance in South American events.

His best participation in world championships was in Las Vegas-99, where he was eliminated by Alexander Khalifman in his speciality: endings. You can see this game here: Khalifman vs R Leitao, 2000. His most recent participation in the world championship cycle was in the World Cup (2013) where he prevailed in his first round match against Russian GM Ernesto Inarkiev in the first round to progress to the second round where he lost to Alexander Morozevich. He placed =1st (4th on tiebreak behind Julio Ernesto Granda Zuniga, Sam Shankland and Alexander Shabalov the American Continental Championship 2014 with 8.5/11 to qualify for the World Cup (2015), where he lost in the second set of rapid tiebreakers of the first round to Yifan Hou and was eliminated from the Cup.

Leitao finished in third place in the 26th Correspondence World Championship (2010).

He is the brother of Nicolau Leitao.

Wikipedia article: Rafael Leitao

Last updated: 2023-11-03 17:12:51

Try our new games table.

 page 1 of 36; games 1-25 of 878  PGN Download
Game  ResultMoves YearEvent/LocaleOpening
1. Leko vs R Leitao  0-1501989wch u10bA07 King's Indian Attack
2. Leko vs R Leitao 1-0201990Wch U12B02 Alekhine's Defense
3. R Leitao vs H Stevic  1-0271991Wch U12D35 Queen's Gambit Declined
4. R Leitao vs A Rychagov  ½-½461991Wch U12A97 Dutch, Ilyin-Genevsky
5. Leko vs R Leitao  ½-½281991Wch U12B90 Sicilian, Najdorf
6. E Tsuboi vs R Leitao  0-1161991Sao Paulo Latin American Cup OpenB93 Sicilian, Najdorf, 6.f4
7. R Leitao vs D Edelman  0-1421991World Youth U26 Team ChampionshipE75 King's Indian, Averbakh, Main line
8. R Leitao vs J Egger  1-0351991World Youth U26 Team ChampionshipE73 King's Indian
9. R Leitao vs F Sanz Alonso  1-0301991Sao Paulo Latin American Cup OpenA55 Old Indian, Main line
10. R Leitao vs O Bergonzi  1-0321991World Youth U26 Team ChampionshipA56 Benoni Defense
11. M Sorokin vs R Leitao  ½-½311991Sao Paulo Latin American Cup OpenE75 King's Indian, Averbakh, Main line
12. I Ibragimov vs R Leitao  1-0421991Sao Paulo Latin American Cup OpenE88 King's Indian, Samisch, Orthodox, 7.d5 c6
13. R Leitao vs A M Pekelman  1-0371991Sao Paulo Latin American Cup OpenA57 Benko Gambit
14. W Martins Madeira vs R Leitao  1-0711991Sao Paulo Latin American Cup OpenB50 Sicilian
15. C Menghi vs R Leitao  ½-½461991World Youth U26 Team ChampionshipE60 King's Indian Defense
16. R Leitao vs H A Machado Jr  1-0551991Sao Paulo Latin American Cup OpenA57 Benko Gambit
17. R Leitao vs A Sorin  0-1661991Sao Paulo Latin American Cup OpenE73 King's Indian
18. G Hernandez Guerrero vs R Leitao  1-0231991Sao Paulo Latin American Cup OpenA05 Reti Opening
19. R Leitao vs F Matsuura  ½-½291991World Youth U26 Team ChampionshipE00 Queen's Pawn Game
20. T Shaked vs R Leitao 0-1421992Wch U14B96 Sicilian, Najdorf
21. E van den Doel vs R Leitao  0-1461992Wch U14B51 Sicilian, Canal-Sokolsky (Rossolimo) Attack
22. R Leitao vs M Cukier  1-0431992Guarapuava Latin American Cup OpenE97 King's Indian
23. R Leitao vs F Oliveira  1-0291992Guarapuava Latin American Cup OpenA52 Budapest Gambit
24. D M D'Israel vs R Leitao  1-0531992Guarapuava Latin American Cup OpenB23 Sicilian, Closed
25. A Sousa vs R Leitao  ½-½141992Guarapuava Latin American Cup OpenC42 Petrov Defense
 page 1 of 36; games 1-25 of 878  PGN Download
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Leitao wins | Leitao loses  

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jul-22-06  arbivara: I wonder why there's no bio info for Leitão here. He was twice world champion (once U12 and once U18).
Dec-06-06  BIDMONFA: Rafael Duailibe Leitao

LEITAO, Rafael
http://www.bidmonfa.com/leitao_rafa...
_

Nov-24-08  shortsight: I wonder why Rafael and Vescovi did not represent Brazil in the Olympiad. Brazil fared badly without them anchoring the team.
Jul-03-09  myschkin: . . .

Bio (in Portuguese): http://xadrez.altervista.org/xadrez...

Fide Card: http://ratings.fide.com/card.phtml?...

*

Federations Ranking Brazil (Active players):

http://ratings.fide.com/topfed.phtm...

Dec-05-09  BTO7: overpoint ;)
Aug-19-10
Premium Chessgames Member
  Tabanus: 3rd place in the IX Mario Covas Jr GM (Brazil) 13-19 August 2010:

http://www.chess-results.com/tnr370...

Dec-06-10  whiteshark: What a phatastic game:

[Event "77th ch-BRA"]
[Site "Americana BRA"]
[Date "2010.12.5"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Leitao, Rafael"]
[Black "El Debs, Felipe de Cresce"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO ""]
[BlackELO ""]
[Eco "D80"]
[Annotator ""]
[Source ""]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bg5 Ne4 5. Bh4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 dxc4 7. e3 Be6 8. Nf3 Bg7 9. Be2 O-O 10. O-O c5 11. Rb1 cxd4 12. Nxd4 Bd5 13. Qc2 Qc7 14. e4 Bc6 15. Bxc4 Be5 16. h3 Re8 17. f4 Bf6 18. Bxf7+ Kxf7 19. Qb3+ e6 20. f5 g5 21. fxe6+ Kg6 22. Qc2 Qe5 23. Rxf6+ Kxf6 24. Qf2+ Kg7 25. Rxb7+ Kh8 26. Bg3 1-0

Annotations on Spragget's todays http://kevinspraggett.blogspot.com/

Dec-28-10  wordfunph: <offramp: Leitao means 'little pig'.>

GM Leitao's ICC handle is Pigzilla.

Dec-20-11  feitang: Brazilian champion 2011! http://chess-results.com/tnr61504.a...
Dec-20-11  Ezzy: Congrats to GM Leitao.

Defending champion Vesconi put up a miserable defence to his title losing 32 rating points in this one tournament.

I always like to follow the progress of Henrique Mecking. He finished 3rd and performed as expected to his rating. I think he lost 1 Elo point.

Jan-30-12  Antiochus: GM Rafael Leitao could be ICCF World Champion
http://www.iccf-webchess.com/EventC... The current Brazilian champion undefeated
http://www.brasilbase.pro.br/bca201...
is also the newer GM ICCF
Congratulations, pigzilla!
Jul-01-12  cro777: GM Rafael Leitão (FIDE 2623, ICCF 2592) has been awarded the Grandmaster title in Correspondence Chess for his performances in the 28th World Championship Candidates and 26th World Championship Final.

Rafael has now joined a very exclusive small band of players who are GM’s both with ICCF (for Correspondence Chess) and FIDE.

Congratulations indeed!

Sep-03-12  Yopo: Eu acho que o GM Leitão deveria aceitar os convites para jogar na Europa. Ele está na sua melhor forma e esta é uma oportubidade única na vida. Tornar-se um STAR, como Mecking foi décadas atrás, é praticamente impossível agora. Nem é isso o que se espera.

A questão, se ele vai subir ou descer 50 pontos, é secundária. Mais vale a "bagagem" que ele vai adquirir, as pessoas que irá conhecer.

Na entrvista abaixo http://www.chessdom.com/interview-w... , ele justifica a permanência no Brasil por estar casado e por ter projetos para o xadrez de São Paulo. Todavia, a "bagagem" seria muito útil nos cursos de xadrez que ministrar e em outros contatos que virá a travar. Quanto à mulher, se ele se estabelecer na Europa por 2 ou 3 anos(quem sabe 5 ou 6), poderá levá-la junto ou poderão se reencontrar ao final dos torneios. Se ele for para jogar 1 ou 2 torneios, poderá levar alguém que esteja disposto a trabalhar intensamente na preparação teórica_ pode servir como conclusão de curso para 1 de seus alunos mais adiantados.

Esses entraves só se resolvem vivenciando as difilculdaes. Não é justo que o mundo só ouça o que ele tem a dizer a cada 2 anos.

Leitao vs Karpov, 2004

Leitao vs Van Wely, 1998

W Rocha vs Leitao, 1998

Sep-16-12  Antiochus: Life and games:

http://www.brasilbase.pro.br/jleit....

Dec-27-13  Antiochus: Brazilian champion 2013. His sixth title.
(8 wins, 3 draws, 0 Losses)

Classification:
http://www.chess-results.com/tnr118...

Games to download:
http://www.chess-results.com/Partie...

Dec-28-13  jrlepage: Happy Birthday GM Leitao!

Fond memories of all those chess lessons on the Net some 15 years ago... :-)

Fan from Québec City

Jan-02-14  whiteshark: <Antiochus: Brazilian champion 2013. His sixth title.> Here's a related chessbase report: http://en.chessbase.com/post/rafael...
May-12-14  Gottschalk: <whiteshark>
I really enjoyed the story and diagrams.Thank you!
We create a list of movies with chess scenes.
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls052182066/
Do you have a favorite movie about chess?
Mar-31-15  whiteshark: An Interview with Rafael Leitao: http://chessactive.blogspot.de/sear...
Sep-06-16  Gottschalk: Não é só o Leitão que entende de estratégia. A turma do Casaquistão também. Ao invés de jogarem sempre mantendo a mesma ordem por rating, eles posicionaram seus tabuleiros para nos acertarem. Às vezes, vale a pena sair do previsto.
Sep-10-16  Gottschalk: Atenção, GM Leitão! Iotov ganhou uma de brancas do Topalov e uma de pretas do Karjakin. Ele já teve 2600.
Sep-11-16  Gottschalk: A medalha individual deve estar próxima!
Mar-15-17  Gottschalk: Very hard to Akesson. GMLeitao wins playing like a machine!

R Akesson vs Leitao, 2000

Sep-20-20  login:

Website https://rafaelleitao.com/


Perpetual Chess Podcast (October 15, 2019)
Episode 147- GM Rafael Leitão

https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/n...

Courtesy of Ben Johnson

Dec-28-20  vonKrolock: Happy birthday, GM Rafael!!
search thread:   
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