| Luca Shytaj | |
|---|---|
 Luca Shytaj, Mitropa Cup 2019 | |
| Full name | Iart Luca Shytaj |
| Country | |
| Born | 3 February 1986 (age 38) Tirana, Albania |
| Title | Grandmaster (2018) |
| FIDE rating | 2449 (October 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.
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