Rustam Kasimdzhanov (born 5 December 1979) is an Uzbek
chess
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
grandmaster and former
FIDE World Champion (2004-05). He was Asian champion in 1998.
In addition to his tournament play, Kasimdzhanov was a longtime
second
The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...
to
Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. ...
, including during the 2008, 2010 and 2012 World Championship matches. He has also trained World Championship candidates
Sergey Karjakin
Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin (born 12 January 1990) is a Russian chess grandmaster (chess), grandmaster and politician. A chess prodigy, he previously held the record for the world's youngest ever grandmaster, having qualified for the title a ...
and
Fabiano Caruana
Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an Italian and American chess grandmaster who is the reigning four-time United States Chess Champion. With a peak rating of 2844, Caruana is the third-highest-rated player in history.
Born in Mia ...
.
Early career
His best results include first in the 1998
Asian Chess Championship, second in the
World Junior Chess Championship
The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament (players must have been under 20 years old on 1 January in the year of competition) organized by the World Chess Federation (FIDE).
The idea was the brainchild of William Rits ...
in 1999, first at
Essen
Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...
2001, first at
Pamplona
Pamplona (; ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Navarre, Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain.
Lying at near above sea level, the city (and the wider Cuenca de Pamplona) is located on the flood pl ...
2002 (winning a blitz playoff against
Victor Bologan
Victor (Viorel) Bologan (born 14 December 1971) is a List of Moldovans, Moldovan chess player and author. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster by FIDE in 1991.
Career
Bologan won the first two editions of the Poikovsky A ...
after both had finished the main tournament on 3½/6), first with 8/9 at the
HZ Chess Tournament 2003 in
Vlissingen
Vlissingen (; ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an importan ...
, joint first with
Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu with 6/9 at
Pune
Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
2005, a bronze-medal winning performance (score of 9½/12 points) on board one for his country at the
2000 Chess Olympiad and runner-up in the FIDE
Chess World Cup
The FIDE World Cup is a major chess event organized by FIDE, the international governing body.
History
Three different formats have been used:
*In 2000 and 2002, it was a multi-stage tournament, with a group stage consisting of 24 players in fo ...
in 2002 (losing to Viswanathan Anand in the final). He has played in the prestigious
Wijk aan Zee
Wijk aan Zee (; ) is a village on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk, the province of North Holland of the Netherlands. The prestigious Tata Steel Chess Tournament (formerly called the Corus chess tournament or the Hoogove ...
tournament twice, but did not perform well either time: in 1999 he finished 11th of 14 with 5/13, in 2002 he finished 13th of 14 with 4½/13.
FIDE World Chess Champion 2004
In the
FIDE World Chess Championship 2004
The FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 was held at the Almahary Hotel in Tripoli, Libya, from June 18 to July 13, 2004.
It was won by Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who beat Michael Adams in the final by a score of 4½–3½. He won about US$100,000 and ...
in
Tripoli, Libya
Tripoli, historically known as Tripoli-of-the-West, is the capital city, capital and largest city of Libya, with a population of about 1.317 million people in 2021. It is located in the northwest of Libya on the edge of the desert, on a point ...
, Kasimdzhanov unexpectedly made his way through to the final, winning mini-matches against
Alejandro Ramírez,
Ehsan Ghaem Maghami,
Vasyl Ivanchuk
Vasyl Mykhailovych Ivanchuk (; born March 18, 1969) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He was awarded the title of International Grandmaster, Grandmaster by FIDE in 1988. A leading chess player since 1988, Ivanchuk has been ranked at No. 2 on t ...
,
Zoltán Almási,
Alexander Grischuk
Alexander Igorevich Grischuk (born October 31, 1983) is a Russian chess grandmaster. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time world blitz chess champion (in 2006, 2012 and 2015).
He has competed in five Candidates To ...
and
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; ; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion.
Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by winning the FIDE ...
to meet
Michael Adams to play for the title and the right to face world number one
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, ra ...
in a match.
In the final six-game match of the Championship, both players won two games, making a tie-break of rapid games necessary. Kasimdzhanov won the first game with black, after having been in a difficult position. By drawing the second game he became the new FIDE champion.
Other world championship results
Kasimdzhanov's 2004 championship victory earned him an invitation to the eight-player
FIDE World Chess Championship 2005, where he tied with
Michael Adams for 6th–7th places.
The 2004 championship also earned him one of sixteen places in the
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The win ...
for the
FIDE World Chess Championship 2007. His first round opponent was
Boris Gelfand
Boris Abramovich Gelfand (; born 24 June 1968) is a Belarusian-Israeli chess player.
A six-time World Championship candidate (1991, 1994–95, 2002, 2007, 2011, 2013), he won the Chess World Cup 2009 and the 2011 Candidates Tournament, mak ...
. In their match, all six regular games were
drawn. Then Gelfand won the rapid tie-break 2½–½, eliminating Kasimdzhanov from the tournament.
Career since championship
On June 23, 2005, in the ABC
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...
studios, the AI
Accoona Toolbar driven by a
Fritz
Fritz is a common German language, German male name. The name originated as a German diminutive of Friedrich (given name), Friedrich or Frederick (given name), Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Fred ...
9 prototype engine, drew against him.
He made his first appearance at
Linares in 2005, finishing tied last with 4/12 points.
In 2006, Kasimdzhanov won the knockout
Corsica
Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...
Masters tournament.
Kasimdzhanov won gold in the
individual men's rapid event at the
2010 Asian Games
The 2010 Asian Games (), officially known as the XVI Asian Games () and also known as Guangzhou 2010 (), were a regional multi-sport event held from November 12 to 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (although several events commenced ear ...
. In the following year he won the inaugural Central Asia Chess Cup in Tashkent.
In 2015 he won the Highlander Cup, a rapid knockout tournament, at the Global Chess Festival, that took place in
Budapest
Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...
and was organized by
Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, widely regarded as the Strong (chess), strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years ...
.
He speaks fluent
Uzbek,
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
,
English and
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
.
Trainer and second
Kasimdzhanov was a second for former World Champion Viswanathan Anand, having worked with Anand in preparation for and during his successful
World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Gukesh Dommaraju, who defeated the previous champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship 2024, 2024 World Chess Championship. ...
title defences in
October 2008
2008 was designated as:
* International Year of Languages
* International Year of Planet Earth
* International Year of the Potato
* International Year of Sanitation
The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued t ...
against
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. He was the World Chess Champion#Split title (1993–2006), Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the 14th undisputed World Ch ...
,
April–May 2010 against
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov (pronounced ; ; born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion.
Topalov became FIDE World Chess Champion by winning the FIDE ...
and in
May 2012 against
Boris Gelfand
Boris Abramovich Gelfand (; born 24 June 1968) is a Belarusian-Israeli chess player.
A six-time World Championship candidate (1991, 1994–95, 2002, 2007, 2011, 2013), he won the Chess World Cup 2009 and the 2011 Candidates Tournament, mak ...
.
He coached the German national team which won 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 2011.
Kasimdzhanov was the trainer of Sergey Karjakin in the Candidates Tournament of 2014, and of Fabiano Caruana in the
Candidates Tournament 2016. He was one of Caruana's seconds during the
2018 World Chess Championship match. He currently trains young Indian grandmaster
Arjun Erigaisi. At the
Tata Steel Chess Tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Ste ...
in 2023, young grandmaster
Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Nodirbek Abdusattorov (; born 18 September 2004) is an Uzbek chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he qualified for the grandmaster title at the age of 13 years, 1 month, and 11 days. FIDE awarded him the title in April 2018. He is Uzbekistan's h ...
revealed that he had begun working with his fellow Uzbek grandmaster Kasimdzhanov over the past year.
Notable games
Rustam Kasimdzhanov vs Viktor Korchnoi, Julian Borowski-A 4th 2002, French Defense: Classical, Burn Variation (C11), 1–0Michael Adams vs Rustam Kasimdzhanov, FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament 2004, Sicilian Defense: Nyezhmetdinov–Rossolimo Attack (B30), 0–1Veselin Topalov vs Rustam Kasimdzhanov, FIDE World Championship Knockout Tournament 2004, Queen's Indian Defense: Anti-Queen's Indian System (E17), 0–1Rustam Kasimdzhanov vs Viswanathan Anand, FIDE World Championship Tournament 2005, Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation, English Attack Anti-English (B90), 1–0
References
Notes
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kasimdzhanov, Rustam
1979 births
Living people
World chess champions
Chess Grandmasters
Chess coaches
Chess Olympiad competitors
Chess players from Tashkent
Asian Games medalists in chess
Chess players at the 2006 Asian Games
Chess players at the 2010 Asian Games
21st-century Uzbekistani chess players
Uzbeks
Asian Games gold medalists for Uzbekistan
Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games