Merab Gagunashvili ( ka, მერაბ გაგუნაშვილი; born 3 January 1985) is a Georgian

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 ...

grandmaster. He is a two-time Georgian Chess Champion.

Chess career

In 2001, he won the silver medal in the World Junior Chess Championship. He became a grandmaster at the age of 17. Gagunashvili won the 2006/07

Hastings International Chess Congress The Hastings International Chess Congress is an annual chess tournament which takes place in Hastings, England, around the turn of the year. The main event is the Hastings Premier tournament, which was traditionally a 10 to 16 player round-robin t ...

edging out on tiebreak defending champion Valeriy Neverov, after both players scored 7/9 points. In 2009 he tied for 3rd–8th with Anton Filippov, Elshan Moradiabadi,

Vadim Malakhatko Vadim Malakhatko ( uk, Вадим Малахатько; 22 March 1977 – 5 June 2023) was a Ukrainian (until 2007) and Belgian (from 2007) chess grandmaster. He was a member of the gold medal-winning Ukrainian team at the 2001 World Team Ches ...

, Alexander Shabalov and Niaz Murshed in the Ravana Challenge Tournament in

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

. In 2010 he won the Tbilisi Municipality Cup. In 2011 he tied for 1st–4th with Gadir Guseinov, Evgeny Gleizerov and Sergei Tiviakov in the 19th Fajr Open Chess Tournament. He took part in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004, but was knocked out in the first round by Smbat Lputian. He played for Georgia in the

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 2020 and ...

s of 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2010. Gagunashvili has stated his favourite players were

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an ...

and

Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster, former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist and commentator. His peak Elo rating system, rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the hi ...

because "they both brought something new to chess."

References

External links

Merab Gagunashvili
chess games at 365Chess.com * 1985 births Living people Chess grandmasters Chess players from Georgia (country) Chess Olympiad competitors Sportspeople from Tbilisi {{Georgia-chess-bio-stub