IM (1999); GM (2002); Czech Champion (2004, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2022).
Born in Prague, Grandmaster David Navara has been playing chess since he was six and became a grandmaster in 2002, six days before his seventeenth birthday. Numerous coaches have helped shape his talents, including Josef Pribyl, Ludek Pachman, and Vlastimil Jansa.
Championships
<Youth> He won the championships of the Czech Republic in his age category in 1993-95.
<National> In 2004, he won the Czech championship for the first time scoring 8/11 in a field of 8 strong grandmasters. In 2005 he shared 1st place in the Czech championship with Jiri Stocek. Won the Czech Championship in 2010. In May 2012, he won the Czech Championship for the fourth time. He won the Czech Championship for the fifth time in May 2013 with a round to spare, possibly two as the tiebreakers were in his favour, his final score being an extremely dominant 8/9, 2.5 points clear of the runner up. In May 2015, he won the Czech Championship for the sixth time, on this occasion with a round to spare.
<Continental> He scored a relatively meagre 7/11 in the European Championship (2012). He scored 7/10 in the European Championship (2013) (failing to qualify for the 2013 World Cup). He placed second in the European Championship (2015) (EICC), half a point behind Evgeny Najer. This would have qualified him for the World Cup 2015 had he not already qualified for that event in last year's EICC. He placed equal second at the European Championship (2014), scoring 8/11 and qualifying for the 2015 World Cup.
<World> In 2008 Navara was announced as a participant in the inaugural FIDE Grand Prix cycle, as the nominee of the host city of Karlovy Vary. He qualified for the World Cup (2011) via his rating, and defeated Russian GM Nikolai Kabanov in the first round, US GM Alexander Onischuk in the second, and Ukrainian GMs Alexander Moiseenko and Yaroslav Zherebukh in the third and fourth rounds, but lost his quarter final contest with Russian GM Alexander Grischuk. He was a President's nominee to the World Cup (2013), where he defeated Sandro Mareco in the first round, but lost to Norwegian GM Jon Ludvig Hammer in the second round, and so was eliminated from the event. At the World Cup (2015), he played and defeated the Israeli champion Tamir Nabaty in the first round to progress through to the second round where he lost to Azeri GM Gadir Guseinov to be eliminated from the event.
Tournaments
In early 2011, he came in =3rd in the category 18 Reggio Emilia (2010/11). In March 2012, he placed equal second (third on tiebreak) at the Reykjavik Open (2012). Navara started 2013 with =5th, his 7.5/10 being a half point behind the co-leaders at Gibraltar Masters (2013), and followed up with a somewhat mediocre 7/10 at the Reykjavik Open (2013). He scored outright first with 8/9 at the Ostravsky konik 2014 - FIDE Open A In Czechia, a point and a half clear of the field.
Navara started 2015 with a strong showing at the Tata Steel Challengers (2015) event, scoring 10/13 and placing outright second, half a point behind the winner Wei Yi. He placed =3rd alongside Michael Adams at the category 19 Biel (2015) tournament, behind Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Radoslaw Wojtaszek respectively.
Team Events
<Olympiad> He hit his stride during the Istanbul Olympiad (2012), playing board 2 for the Czech Republic and winning individual gold with a stunning score of 9.5/11, racking up a TPR of 2869.
<National Representative> His first great achievement was at the 2001 European Team Championship in Leon, where he scored 7 out of 9 points (performance rating: 2775).
<National and Continental Leagues> In 2011-12 he also played for 1. Novoborský ŠK in the Czech Extraliga, helping his team to first place with a personal scored of 8.5/10 (+7 =3) against a strong field of 7 GMs and 3 IMs. In 2012, he played in the French Top 12 League, in the Greek League and in the Polish Extraliga. Although he scored 8.5/11 in the 2012/13 season in the Czech Extraliga, it was insufficient to help his team AD Mahrla Praha above 11th (out of 12) place. In October 2013, he played top board for G-Team Novy Bor, scoring 4.5/7 and helping his team to win the European Club Cup (2013). Navara played top board for SV Mülheim Nord in the 2013-14 Bundesliga, his team placing second out of a field of 16. He is playing second board for this team in the 2014-15 Bundesliga. He also played in the last 4 rounds (19-22) for Jiangsu in the Chinese League 2014, helping his team to win gold.
Matches
He lost 3-1 in the Cez Trophy: Navara - Svidler (2012). In June 2013, he drew the match Navara vs Y Hou, 2013, drawing all four classical games; however, after drawing the blitz tiebreakers 1-1 he lost the Armageddon blitz tiebreaker. He lost the Cez Trophy Navara - Nakamura Match (2014) by 3.5-0.5. In June 2015, he lost the So - Navara Match (2015) by 1-3 (-2 =2).
Rapid and Blitz
He finished 2014 with =1st with 11/13 at the Czech Blitz Championship, a strong 8.5/13 at the European Rapid Championship and a spectacular first place with 19/22 (2 clear of the field) at the European Blitz Championship.
Rating and Ranking
Navara's peak rating to date 2751 in May 2015 (when he was ranked world #14), while his peak ranking was world #13 in October 2006 when he was rated 2725.
Sources and References
Wikipedia article: David Navara; live rating: http://www.2700chess.com/
Kibitzing
