Margeir Pétursson (born 15 February 1960) is an Icelandic

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

and

chess grandmaster Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally the t ...

. He founded

MP Bank MP banki was an investment bank in Iceland that operated from 2003 until 2015 when it became part of Kvika Banki. History The company was founded as MP Securities ( Icelandic: MP Verðbréf hf) in 1999 by Margeir Pétursson together with Sverri ...

in 1999, and has owned Bank Lviv since 2006. He was Icelandic Chess Champion in 1986 and 1987, and Nordic Chess Champion in 1987.

Chess career

Born in

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

on 15 February 1960, Margeir 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 1978 and grandmaster title in 1986. He won the Hastings Premier in January 1986 with a score of 9½/13. He won the

Icelandic Chess Championship The Icelandic Chess Championship is usually held in Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. It is organised by the Icelandic Chess Federation (ICF), the body responsible for holding national chess events and for representing Icelandic chess at the World ...

in 1986 and 1987, and the

Nordic Chess Championship The Nordic Chess Championship (''Nordiska Schackkongressen'') is a biennial chess tournament which determines the champion of the Nordic countries. The first edition took place in Stockholm in 1897. History The winners in the Nordic Championship in ...

in 1987. He competed in the July 1985 Interzonal, scoring 7/17; the 1990 Interzonal, scoring 6/13; and participated in the

FIDE World Chess Championship 1998 The FIDE World Chess Championship 1998 was contested in a match between the FIDE World Champion Anatoly Karpov and the challenger Viswanathan Anand. The match took place between 2 January and 9 January 1998 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The challeng ...

, where he was eliminated in the first round by

Lembit Oll Lembit Oll (23 April 1966 – 16 May 1999) was an Estonian chess grandmaster. Chess career Born in Kohtla-Järve on 23 April 1966, Oll became Estonian Chess Champion in 1982 and U20 Soviet Chess Champion in 1984. FIDE awarded him the interna ...

. From 1976 to 1996, he played in eleven consecutive

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...

s. His overall Olympiad score is 73/122 (+44–20=58). He also competed in two

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 ...

s (1992 and 2015), with an overall score of 7½/15 (+3–3=9); and one

World Team Chess Championship The World Team Chess Championship is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of 10 countries whose chess federations dominate their continent. It is played every two years. In chess, this tournament and the Chess Olympiads ...

(1993), scoring 4/7 (+2–1=4). In 2016, he participated in the 50+ group of the World Senior Team Chess Championship, scoring 6/8 (+4–0=4). Margeir is the No. 6 ranked Icelandic player as of September 2020, with a rating of 2475.

Business career

After eight years as a professional chess player, Margeir founded a

securities A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any for ...

company in 1999. This company lost money due to the

dot-com crash The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...

but survived and in 2003 he converted it into an

investment bank Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...

, naming it

after it obtained its commercial license. MP Bank was the only Icelandic commercial bank that did not crash during the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

. It was sold to a group of Icelandic and foreign investors in 2011; as of 2015, Margeir is one of Iceland's wealthiest citizens. In 2006, Margeir bought Bank Lviv, which is ranked 44th among the 88 Ukrainian banks in terms of assets as of October 2017. In February 2018, he acquired a 99.8% stake in the Lviv-based financial company Integral Investments.

Personal life

In a 2016 interview with ''

The Ukrainian Week ''The Ukrainian Week'' (, ) is an illustrated weekly magazine and news outlet covering politics, economics and the arts and aimed at the socially engaged Ukrainian-language reader. It provides a range of analysis, opinion, interviews, feature p ...

'', Margeir said he moved to

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

in 2004 and has been living in the city permanently since 2011. He also stated that he is a supporter of the Icelandic Independence Party. A fluent speaker of Ukrainian, he acted as a translator for

Heimir Hallgrímsson Heimir Hallgrímsson (born 10 June 1967) is an Icelandic professional football manager and former player who is the current manager of the Republic of Ireland men's national team. Early life Heimir was born on 10 June 1967, and grew up in a ...

, manager of the

Iceland national football team The Iceland national football team () represents Iceland in men's international Association football, football. The team is controlled by the Football Association of Iceland, and have been a FIFA member since 1947 and a UEFA member since 1957. ...

, during the Ukraine–Iceland game (that ended 1–1) held on 5 September 2016 in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pétursson, Margeir 1960 births Living people Chess Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors Margeir Pétursson Margeir Pétursson Margeir Pétursson Margeir Pétursson