Daniel Dardha (born 1 October 2005) is a Belgian chess grandmaster. He won the

Belgian Chess Championship The Belgian Chess Championship is a Tournament, championship organised yearly by the Koninklijke Belgische Schaakbond/Fédération Royale Belge des Echecs (Royal Belgium Chess Federation). The winner of the championship is awarded the title: Chess C ...

in 2019 at age 13, becoming the youngest player to do so.

Chess career

In 2017, aged 12, he won the U-14 Blitz Chess Championship. He earned his

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

title in 2019, shortly after winning the Belgian Chess Championship. He earned his Grandmaster title in 2021 after winning the

for the second time, becoming Belgium's youngest ever Grandmaster at age 15. He won the Belgian Chess Championship for the third time in 2022. He did not defend his title in 2023, playing instead in the 2023 Chess World Cup. He defeated Goh Wei Ming in the first round, but was defeated by Vincent Keymer in the second round. He won the

for the fourth time in 2024.

Personal life

Dardha's father, Arben Dardha, who became U-20 Albanian Champion at age 16, is a FIDE Master and, as of 2019, Daniel's coach (Daniel is also intermittently coached by Ivan Sokolov). Dardha's grandfather, Bardhyl Dardha, coached the Tomori chess club in

Berat Berat (; sq-definite, Berati) is the List of cities and towns in Albania, ninth most populous city of Albania and the seat of Berat County and Berat Municipality. By air, it is north of Gjirokastër, west of Korçë, south of Tirana, and ea ...

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

as well as his son. At age 82, he was still active in online chess. His family name means pear in English.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dardha, Daniel 2005 births Living people Chess Grandmasters people from Mortsel Belgian chess players Belgian people of Albanian descent Chess Olympiad competitors