Igor-Alexandre Nataf (born 2 May 1978) is a French

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

player. He received the

FIDE title 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 ...

of Grandmaster in 1998.

Chess career

Nataf represented France at the

European Team Chess Championship The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...

in 1999 and at

Olympiads An olympiad ( el, Ὀλυμπιάς, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not until ...

in 2000 and 2004. In the 2000 FIDE World Championship, he beat

Emil Sutovsky Emil Sutovsky (born 19 September 1977) is an Israeli chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1996. Sutovsky is the FIDE CEO since 2022. Previously he served as FIDE Director-General (2018-22). He was the president of the A ...

and

Nigel Short Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English chess grandmaster, columnist, coach, and commentator, who is the vice-president of FIDE since October 2018. Short earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 19, and was ranked third in the ...

before losing to the Brazilian grandmaster

Rafael Leitão Rafael Duailibe Leitão (born 28 December 1979) is a Brazilian chess player. He is a grandmaster in both over-the-board chess and correspondence chess. Leitão is a seven-time Brazilian champion. He competed in the FIDE World Championship in 1 ...

in round 3. He was less successful in the 2001–02 World Championship, beating

Viktor Bologan Victor (Viorel) Bologan (born 14 December 1971) is a Moldovan chess player and author. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1991. Career Bologan won the first two editions of the Poikovsky Karpov International Tournament, in 20 ...

in round 1 but losing to

Konstantin Sakaev Konstantin Rufovich Sakaev (russian: Константи́н Ру́фович Сака́ев; born 13 April 1974 in Leningrad) is a Russian chess Grandmaster (1993), chess author and Russian champion in 1999. Sakaev is on the staff of the Grandmas ...

in round 2.

Notable games

Nataf's win against

John Nunn John Denis Martin Nunn (born 25 April 1955) is an English chess grandmaster, a three-time world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician. He is one of England's strongest chess players and was forme ...

at the 1999 French Team championship was voted best game in ''

Chess Informant Chess Informant (Šahovski Informator) is a publishing company from Belgrade (Serbia, former Yugoslavia) that periodically (since 2012, four volumes per year) produces a book entitled ''Chess Informant'', as well as the '' Encyclopaedia of Chess O ...

76'' in 1999.

Sicilian Defence The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves: :1. e4 c5 The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. Opening 1.d4 is a statistically more successful opening for White be ...

Kalashnikov Variation The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves: :1. e4 c5 The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. Opening 1.d4 is a statistically more successful opening for White be ...

('' ECO'' B32)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6 6.c4 Be7 7.N1c3 a6 8.Na3 f5 9.Bd3 f4 10.g3 Nf6 11.gxf4 exf4 12.Bxf4 0-0 13.Bg3 Ng4 14.Be2 (diagram) Nxf2!! 15.Qd5+ Kh8 16.Bxf2 Nb4 17.Qh5 Rxf2 18.Kxf2 Bh4+ 19.Kg2 g6 20.Qf3 Qg5+ 21.Kf1 Bh3+ 22.Qxh3 Rf8+ 23.Bf3 Qe3 24.Qxh4 Nd3 25.Nd5 Qxf3+ 26.Kg1 Nf2 27.Kf1 Qxh1+ 28.Ke2 Qxa1 0–1

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nataf, Igor-Alexandre Chess grandmasters French chess players Chess Olympiad competitors Sportspeople from Paris 1978 births Living people