Anish Giri

Biography

Anish Giri was born on 28 June 1994 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to a Russian mother and a Nepalese father, and as a child he spoke Russian, Nepali and Japanese before adding Dutch and English. In 2002 his family moved to Sapporo, Japan, where he lived until 2008, when they resettled in the Dutch town of Rijswijk; he has represented the Netherlands ever since. He completed the grandmaster title in 2009 at age 14 years and 7 months, and went on to reach a peak FIDE rating of 2798 in October 2015, briefly climbing to world No. 3 in January 2016.

Giri has qualified for the Candidates Tournament three times. At Moscow 2016 he drew all fourteen of his games — the only player in the field to finish undefeated — sharing 6th place on 7/14. At the COVID-interrupted 2020–21 Candidates in Yekaterinburg he tied for 3rd with 7½/14. He returned to the Candidates in 2026 after winning the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss, and finished runner-up with 8½/14, half a point behind winner Javokhir Sindarov. Fellow grandmaster Arkadij Naiditsch once remarked that "beating Magnus Carlsen is easier than beating Giri" — a nod to a famously solid, hard-to-crack style that has also, on Wikipedia's own account, occasionally cost him full points when he could not convert winning positions.

At home, Giri has won the Dutch Championship five times (2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2023). His best individual tournament wins include Reggio Emilia in 2012 and the Reykjavik Open in 2017, and at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee — the event he has played longer than almost any other elite — he has finished on the podium repeatedly, sharing first with Magnus Carlsen in 2018 (losing the tiebreak), sharing first with Jorden van Foreest in 2021, winning outright in 2023, and sharing a four-way tie for first in 2024 (losing the playoff to Wei Yi). For the Netherlands he has played board one at five of his seven Chess Olympiads, collecting three individual bronze medals along the way.

Key achievements

• Winner, Tata Steel Chess Tournament, Wijk aan Zee: 2023
• Runner-up, Candidates Tournament 2026: 8½/14, half a point behind champion Javokhir Sindarov
• Only undefeated player at the 2016 Candidates Tournament: drew all 14 games
• Five-time Dutch Chess Champion: 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2023
• Peak FIDE rating 2798 (October 2015); peak world ranking No. 3 (January 2016)
• Three individual bronze medals across seven Chess Olympiads for the Netherlands

Ratings

Titles

No World Championship, Candidates, or World Rapid/Blitz title has been won to date — see Classical Tournaments below for placements.

Classical Tournaments

Team Events

Source: OlimpBase (olimpbase.org) individual Olympiad records, cross-checked with Wikipedia.

Read more on Wikipedia or view his FIDE profile.