Born in St Petersburg, Nikita Kirillovich Vitiugov became a Grandmaster in 2006. He came second in the World Youth Championships in 2006 in Herceg Novi and was a member of the gold-medal-winning Russian team at the World Team Championship (2010) in Bursa, winning individual gold for second reserve, scoring 5.5/6 for a TPR of 2940. He also won individual gold playing reserve for the Russian team in the World Chess Team Championship (2011), scoring 4/6 (TPR 2729).

He was U18 European Vice-Champion (2005), U18 Russian Champion (2005), U20 Russian Vice-Champion (2006, 2007), came in at 11th in the Russian Championship Superfinal (2006), was =4th in the Russian Championship Superfinal (2007), won the Russian Championship Higher League (2007) on tiebreak, was fourth in the Russian Championship Superfinal (2008), placed third in Russian Championship Superfinal (2009) behind Alexander Grischuk and Peter Svidler, was knocked out of the first round of the World Cup (2007) but made it to round 4 of the World Cup (2009), before losing to Sergey Karjakin. He also played board 3 for Russia 2 in the Khanty-Mansiysk Olympiad (2010) scoring 6/9 without losing a game, and scored 5.5/11 coming in 5th at the Russian Championship Superfinal (2010). He came second on count back to Le Quang Liem at the Aeroflot Open (2011), when he scored 6.5/9 (+5 -1 =3), and was =5th (10th on tiebreak) with 8/11, a half point from the lead, in the European Championship (2011), a result that qualified him for participation in the World Cup (2011) where he beat compatriot Alexei Bezgodov and Ukrainian GM Anton Korobov in rounds one and two before losing in a minor upset in the third round to Vladimir Potkin. A poor result (3/10) in the Reggio Emilia (2011) reduced his rating by 17 in the bimonthly rating period to 1 March 2012. Mediocre results in the 2011-12 Bundesliga and in the Russian Team Championship (2012) were only partially offset by his solid 7.5/11 in the European Championship (2012), which earned him a place in the World Cup (2013). However, he regained form to place =1st (3rd on tiebreak) in the Russian Championship Higher League (2012) to qualify for the Russian Championship Superfinal (2012), in which he scored 4/9 to finish a point off the lead in a low scoring event. His good form continued into 2013 when he placed =1st at Gibraltar Masters (2013) with 8/10, and then won the Gibraltar Masters (Tiebreaks) (2013) to win first prize.

In October 2012, Vitiugov helped his team Saint-Petersburg Chess Federation to a silver medal in the European Club Cup (2012). In April 2013, playing board 2 he helped his St Petersburg team to a gold medal at the Russian Team Championship (2013). In August 2013, his first round result in the World Cup 2013 was a 2-0 win over young Canadian GM Conrad Holt, which enabled him to progress to the second round where he defeated Austrian #1, GM Markus Ragger. He lost to compatriot Alexander Morozevich in the third round. In October 2013, he won silver playing board 3 for St Petersburg in the European Club Cup (2013).

Vitiugov qualified by rating to participate in the World Cup (2015) where he won his first round game against Armenian GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan but lost his second round game against Le Quang Liem to bow out of the Cup contest.

Nikita Vitiugov won the Russian Championship Superfinal (2021) with 7/11 (+3 -0 =8)

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