Anish Kumar Giri (Nepali: अनीश कुमार गिरी; Russian: Аниш Кумар Гири; born 28 June 1994) is a Dutch chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he completed the requirements for the title Grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 7 months and 2 days.[2][3] FIDE awarded him the title in 2009. Giri is a four-time Dutch champion (2009, 2011, 2012, and 2015) and won the Corus Chess B Group in 2010. He has represented the Netherlands at five Chess Olympiads (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018).
He has also won major international tournaments, including the 2012 Reggio Emilia tournament, 2017 Reykjavik Open and shared 1st place in the 2015 London Chess Classic and 2018 Wijk aan Zee. In 2019 he won clear first at the Third Edition of the Shenzhen Masters, deemed by some to be his first supertournament victory[4][5] and supported by Dutch Chess Federation (KNSB). As of August 2021, Anish Giri is the No. 1 ranked player in the Netherlands, having switched from Russia in 2009.[1] In 2021 Wijk aan Zee, Giri tied for first place with fellow Dutch GM Jorden van Foreest, but lost to him in the armageddon round after the two blitz games in the playoff ended in a draw. During the 2023 Tata Steel chess tournament, Giri edged out Nodirbek Abdusattorov on the last day to win the event, becoming the fourth Dutch player since 1968 (after Gennadi Sosonko, Jan Timman, and Jorden van Foreest), and 14th Dutch player overall, to do so.
Giri was born in Saint Petersburg on 28 June 1994 to a Russian mother, Olga,[6] and Nepalese father, Sanjay Giri. His grandmother is from India.[3][7][8][9] In 2002, he moved to Sapporo, Japan with his parents and lived there until 2008. Since February 2008, Giri and his family have lived in the Dutch town of Rijswijk, where his father worked at a research and consulting foundation. In June 2013, Giri graduated from Grotius College high school in Delft.
Giri began playing chess with his mother at the age of six.[10] By the age of 11, he was rated above 2100 and continued to grow stronger. Giri's first club was a local youth sport club 'DYUSH-2' in Saint Petersburg. His trainers in this club were Asya Kovalyova and Andrei Praslov. He was a member of the Japan Chess Association and the Sapporo Chess Club during his stay in Japan. In 2004, he won the Sapporo Chess Championship.[11]
Giri developed quickly as a junior, his rating increasing rapidly between April 2006 and July 2010 from 2114 to 2672.[12] Giri worked with trainer Vladimir Chuchelov between 2009–2012 and resumed the collaboration in 2017. Giri also worked with Vladimir Tukmakov between 2013 and 2016.
Giri shared first place in the Russian Higher League Under-14s Boys Championship scoring 6½/9, winning the Saint Petersburg Boys Under 16s and coming third in the Under 18s event in 2007. The next year saw him share first at the Blokadny Saint Petersburg Open and win the Petrograd Winter Open scoring 8½/9. He followed with his first Grandmaster norm, achieved at the Intomart GfK Open sharing first with 7/9 in April 2008, sharing second at Kunsthalle GM Open and reaching his second Grandmaster norm at Groningen by sharing fourth place with 6½/9.
Giri's first appearance at a major tournament came in his shared second place at Corus Chess Group C in January 2009 giving him his third GM norm, his Grandmaster status being confirmed in June.[13] He also shared second at the Dutch Open, won the Dutch Championship and shared second at the Unive tournament.
His performance in the previous year's Corus Chess Group C earned him a spot in Group B in 2010. He won the tournament with a score of 9/13, half a point ahead of Arkadij Naiditsch. Despite a disappointing result in the European Individual Championships, he drew a match with Nigel Short and won the Sigeman & Co tournament scoring 4½/5, coming second in the Dutch Championships behind Erwin L'Ami and was one of the best scorers for the Rising Stars team during the NH tournament against the Experienced team, but was unable to qualify for the Melody Amber tournament, losing on tiebreaks against Hikaru Nakamura.[14][15]
It was revealed in May 2010 that Giri had aided Viswanathan Anand in preparation for the World Chess Championship 2010 against challenger Veselin Topalov. Anand won the match 6½–5½ to retain the title.
At his debut appearance at Tata Steel in 2011 he scored 6½/13 (+2–2=9) and defeated Magnus Carlsen with Black in 22 moves.[18][19] He also became Dutch champion for the second time and shared first place at Sigeman & Co with Wesley So and Hans Tikkanen.[20][21]
Despite being the lowest ranked player, Giri won the 2012 Reggio Emilia chess tournament, claimed his third Dutch championship and shared third place at the strong Biel Chess Festival.[22] His solid improvement continued with fourth place at the Reykjavik Open and a match victory against Vassily Ivanchuk at Leon in 2013.[23] Giri took part in the 2012/13 FIDE Grand Prix cycle, but failed to qualify for the Candidates Tournament.
In 2014 Giri shared second place at the Tata Steel tournament, won individual bronze for his first board performance at the 41st Chess Olympiad in Tromso and finished second at the strong Qatar Masters Open.[24][25][26]
In February 2015, Giri briefly crossed the 2800 mark in the live FIDE ratings by beating Peter Svidler at the FIDE Grand Prix in Tbilisi, but did not maintain the ranking level until the end of the month to appear in the official ratings.[27][28] Giri participated in the 2014/15 FIDE Grand Prix cycle, but again failed to qualify for the Candidates Tournament.
In March 2016, Giri participated in the Candidates Tournament 2016 in Moscow after qualifying (for the first time) as one of the two players with the highest average ratings for 2015. At the tournament, he drew all 14 games. He went to the tournament with his wife Sopiko Guramishvili and his coach Vladimir Tukmakov.[29][30]
As of 2016, Giri has been sponsored by the proprietary trading firm Optiver.[31]
Giri finished sixth in Norway Chess with a score of 4.5/9, scoring wins against Maxime-Vachier Lagrave and Anand but lost a "crash and burn" game in 17 moves versus Vladimir Kramnik.[32] In April 2017, Giri won the Reykjavik Open with a score of 8½/10 (+7–0=3).[33] He placed fourth in Your Next Move (Rapid and Blitz), Leuven, winning €15,000, his only appearance on the Grand Chess Tour of that year.[34] In the FIDE Grand Prix, he placed ninth in Moscow, fifth in Geneva and thirteenth in La Palma, ending up twelfth overall. He reached the fourth round Section 3 of the Chess World Cup, losing to Vassily Ivanchuk in a tie-break. He won the European Club Cup as part of team Globus, alongside, among others, Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk and Sergey Karjakin.[35]
Giri finished sixth in Norway Chess with a score of 4.5/9, scoring wins against Maxime-Vachier Lagrave and Anand but lost a "crash and burn" game in 17 moves versus Vladimir Kramnik.[32] In April 2017, Giri won the Reykjavik Open with a score of 8½/10 (+7–0=3).[33] He placed fourth in Your Next Move (Rapid and Blitz), Leuven, winning €15,000, his only appearance on the Grand Chess Tour of that year.[34] In the FIDE Grand Prix, he placed ninth in Moscow, fifth in Geneva and thirteenth in La Palma, ending up twelfth overall. He reached the fourth round Section 3 of the Chess World Cup, losing to Vassily Ivanchuk in a tie-break. He won the European Club Cup as part of team Globus, alongside, among others, Kramnik, Alexander Grischuk and Sergey Karjakin.[35]
At the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023, Giri beat World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in classical chess for the first time in 12 years. Giri later defeated World No. 2 Ding Liren and ended in round 13 by defeating the Romanian Grandmaster Richárd Rapport. His victory against Ding contributed to Ding's rating dropping below 2800, which left only Magnus Carlsen with a rating above 2800. Giri went on to win the event.