Born in Durrës and awarded the Grandmaster title in 1998, Erald Dervishi is Albania's first and so far only GM as well as its top player. He is a lawyer by trade.
Championships
In 1994 he was the European U14 chess champion and came =3rd in the 1996 U18 European Championship. He was Albanian Champion in 1996 and 1997. Also in 1996, he helped his team Teuta Durrës to the Albanian Club Championship for that year.
Tournaments
Dervishi's best results were 1st at the Elitia Open in 1997, 2nd at the Montecatini Open in 1998, 2nd at the Jesolo Open in 1999, 3rd in the Genova Open in 1999, 2nd at the Bratto Open in 1999, 2000 and 2004, 1st at the Durrës GM tournament in October 2001, =1st at Bratto 2006 and first at Bratto in 2009, =1st at the Padova Open in 2000 and 1st at the FE Padova in Italy in 2006, 1st at the FE Castione della Presolana in Italy in 2008 and 1st at the Durres Open in 2013. In November 2017, he won the 5 RIDEF Parties classiques Championnats de la Francophonie outright with 7.5/9; the event was staged in Tunisia.
Team Events (1)
<National representation> Dervishi first represented Albania at the Boy's Balkaniads in 1993 and 1994 when he played top board. In the 1993 event he won team and individual bronze and in the latter he won individual gold. He has played for Albania in the Olympiads of 1994 on board 4 and in 1998 he won the individual bronze medal for board 2. He played top board during the Olympiads of 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, Istanbul Olympiad (2012) (where he scored 8/11 on top board), Tromso Olympiad (2014) and 2016. He also played top board for Albania at the European Team Championship in 2001.
<National leagues> Dervishi played top board for the Italian Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova team in the European Club Cup (2006). He also played top board for Godesberger SK in the West Bundesliga for the 2013-14 season, at the end of which it placed 5th out of 10. He also played top board for that club in the 2014-15 season of the West Bundesliga.
FIDE
Dervishi is - as of 2018 - the vice-President and FIDE Delegate of the Albania Chess Federation and a member of FIDE's Commission for World Championships & Olympiads (WCO). (2)
Civil
He was awarded the Grand Master of Work Order by Albanian President Bujar Nishani in May 2017. Since 2013, he has been a member of the Steering Committee of the Albanian National Olympic Committee, in May 2017 he was the head of the Olympic Red Cross delegation in the Islamic Games in Baku on May 12-22, 2017. (3)
Rating
Dervishi's highest standard rating to date is 2582, achieved in April 2014. His peak rapid rating was also 2582, achieved in October 2017 when he scored 7/9 at the 1er Championnat d'Europe rapide des Entreprises in France.
Source (1) http://www.olimpbase.org/playersbb/... (2) https://ratings.fide.com/fide_direc... and http://www.giovanniarmillotta.it/al... (3) Wikipedia article: Erald Dervishi and http://sportekspres.com/erald-dervi...