| Luca Shytaj | |
|---|---|
 Luca Shytaj, Mitropa Cup 2019 | |
| Full name | Iart Luca Shytaj |
| Country | |
| Born | 3 February 1986 (age 38) Tirana, People's Socialist Republic of Albania |
| Title | Grandmaster (2018) |
| FIDE rating | 2449 (March 2024) |
| Peak rating | 2507 (September 2011) |
Iart Luca Shytaj (born 3 February 1986) is an Albanian-Italian chess grandmaster and virologist.
Born on 3 February 1986, Shytaj won the Albanian Chess Championship in 2003. He earned his international master (IM) title in 2006, and won the Italian Rapid Chess Championship in 2009. [1] He achieved his first grandmaster (GM) norm at the Arctic Chess Challenge in August 2009, his second during the 2016/17 Chess Bundesliga season, and his third at the Mulhouse Festival in July 2018. He was awarded the title in October 2018. [2] He is the 14th Italian player to achieve the title of GM. [3] [4]
Shytaj represented Albania at the 36th and 37th Chess Olympiads, and Italy at the 38th Chess Olympiad. [5]
Shytaj received a bachelor's degree in biology from the Sapienza University of Rome, and a master's degree in genetics and molecular biology from the same university. [1] His Ph.D. thesis, which resulted in a functional cure of AIDS in macaques, [6] was named as one of the three best presentations at HIV Dart 2012, an international conference on drug development processes in antiretroviral research. [7] As of 2017, Shytaj works at Heidelberg University. [8]
Shytaj was born in Tirana. He moved to Italy with his parents at age six, and he became an Italian citizen in 2007. [1] He married German GM Elisabeth Pähtz in September 2015. [9] They separated in 2018.
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 title can be revoked for cheating.
Irina Borisivna Krush is an American chess Grandmaster. She is the only woman to earn the GM title while playing for the United States. Krush is an eight-time U.S. Women's Champion and a two-time Women's American Cup Champion.
Vladimir Akopian is an Armenian-American chess Grandmaster.
Zhao Xue is a Chinese chess player. She is the 24th Chinese person to achieve the title of Grandmaster. Zhao was a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese team at the Women's Chess Olympiad in 2002, 2004 and 2016, and at the Women's World Team Chess Championship in 2007, 2009 and 2011. She has competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2018, reaching the semifinals in 2010.
Elisabeth Pähtz is a German chess Grandmaster. She has been among the strongest German female chess players since her youth. In 2002, Pähtz became the World Youth Champion of the girls' under-18 age group, and in 2005, the World Junior Girls Champion. She won the 2018 European Women's Championship in rapid chess. In 2021, she scored what was reported to be her third grandmaster norm; however, the validity of one of her earlier presumed norms was in doubt. After a lengthy process, FIDE made an individual decision on her case in December 2022, making Pähtz the first German woman to earn the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM).
Smbat Gariginovich Lputian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster. He was first at tournament in Berlin 1982, shared first at Athens 1983 and at Irkutsk 1983, first at Sarajevo 1985 and at Irkutsk 1986, shared first at Hastings 1986–87 and first at Dortmund 1988. He won the Armenian Championship in 1978, 1980, 1998, and 2001. In 2006, he won a team gold medal at the 37th Chess Olympiad. Smbat Lputyan has been the founder-president of Chess Academy of Armenia since 2002.
Alon Greenfeld is an Israeli chess grandmaster and trainer.
Daniele Vocaturo is an Italian chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster. He is the No. 1 ranked Italian player as of August 2023, as has been since May 2016.
Isa Kasimi, born Igor Kondylev and known as Igors Rausis until 2020, was a Latvian chess International Master. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1992, but the title was stripped away after he was caught cheating in 2019. He won the Latvian Chess Championship in 1995. He represented Bangladesh from 2003 to 2007, when he switched to the Czech Republic.
Akshayraj Kore, is an Indian chess player and a Grandmaster. In 2006, he became Maharashtra's youngest International Master at the time after he won the Invitational IM Norm Round Robin Chess Tournament in Luhansk, Ukraine. In February 2013, he became India's 32nd Grandmaster.
Sabino Brunello is an Italian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2010.
Joshua Daniel Ruiz Castillo is a Colombian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2019.
Martin Kraemer is a German chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in September 2012.
Lorenzo Lodici is an Italian chess grandmaster. He is an Italian Champion in 2018 and winner of chess' Mitropa Cup in 2021. He represented Italian Team at Chess Olympiads in 2022 and at Online Chess Olympiads in 2020.
Lutz Espig is a German chess Grandmaster (1983) who was thrice East German Chess Champion. Lutz also was a Euroteams bronze medal winner (1970).
Thomas Pähtz, sometimes spelled Paehtz is a German chess Grandmaster who two times won East Germany Chess Championship and won German Chess Championship (1993).
Stefan Kuipers is a Dutch chess player.
Luca Moroni is an Italian chess grandmaster. He is three times Italian Champion in 2017, 2022 and 2023, and winner of chess' Mitropa Cup in 2021. He represented Italian Team at Chess Olympiads in 2016, 2018 and 2022 and at Online Chess Olympiads in 2020.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
