David Navara
Encyclopedia
David Navara is a chess
Grandmaster from Czech Republic
. On the April 2007 FIDE
rating list he was ranked number 14 in the world with an Elo rating of 2720, making him the highest ranked Czech player.
His career was progressing very fast under coaches like Luděk Pachman
or Vlastimil Jansa
, as he won several world medals in youth categories. In 2001, aged 16, he got 7 of 9 in the European Team Championships. One year later, three days before his 17th birthday, he received the Grandmaster title, next year he won open tournament in Polanica Zdrój
.
Ranked 14th, he finished sixth in the 2004 Fifth European Individual Chess Championship in Antalya
with 7.5 points (+5−2=5), including a draw against the eventual champion Vassily Ivanchuk.
Navara won the Czech Chess Championship
in 2004, 2005 and 2010.
In 2005, Navara participated in the World Chess Cup, but was eliminated by Predrag Nikolić
in the first round.
He was very successful in the 37th Chess Olympiad 2006, having 8.5 points from 12 games against world-class competition.
Navara played several matches in Prague
, drawing with Anatoly Karpov
(+0−0=2) in 2005 and Boris Gelfand
(+1−1=2) in 2006 and winning against Nigel Short
(+3-0=3) in 2007 and Sergei Movsesian
(+1-0=5) in 2011.
In 2007 he was invited for the first time into supertournament
in Wijk aan Zee
, where he replaced Alexander Morozevich
. Navara, nicknamed Navara Express by organizers, won 6.5 points of 13 games (+3−3=7) including wins against Ruslan Ponomariov
and Magnus Carlsen
and defending draws with black pieces against Kramnik
and Topalov
and finished in 7th place.
In August 2007 Navara finished first in the big Ordix Open with a score of 9.5/11 on progressive score tiebreak. In September he played in Karlovy Vary tourney where he finished 3rd half a point behind the winners Ponomariov and Movsesian.
He also participated in the European Team Chess Championship where he scored 6 points out of 9 game on the first board for the Czech team.
In November 2007 Navara participated in the World Chess Cup. He beat Ivanov of US in the first round but was defeated in the tie-breaks by Rublevsky in the second round.
In 2007-2008 Navara played in the Torneo di Capodanno in Italy, scoring 3/8 (+1 -3 =4). He played in the Baku Grand Prix Tournament in 2008, scoring 5.5/13 (+2 -4 =7).
Navara obtained a degree in logic at Charles University in Prague
.
on August 3, 2009:
Other notable games include:
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
Grandmaster from Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. On the April 2007 FIDE
Fédération Internationale des Échecs
The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation is an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world and acts as the governing body of international chess competition. It is usually referred to as FIDE , its French acronym.FIDE...
rating list he was ranked number 14 in the world with an Elo rating of 2720, making him the highest ranked Czech player.
His career was progressing very fast under coaches like Luděk Pachman
Ludek Pachman
Luděk Pachman was a Czechoslovak-German chess grandmaster, chess writer, and political activist. In 1972, after being imprisoned and tortured almost to death by the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, he was allowed to emigrate to West Germany...
or Vlastimil Jansa
Vlastimil Jansa
Vlastimil Jansa is a Chess Grandmaster from the Czech Republic .He learned chess while in hospital at the age of eight and at fourteen, became the youth champion of Prague. In 1959, he finished second in the Czechoslovak national junior championship...
, as he won several world medals in youth categories. In 2001, aged 16, he got 7 of 9 in the European Team Championships. One year later, three days before his 17th birthday, he received the Grandmaster title, next year he won open tournament in Polanica Zdrój
Polanica Zdrój
Polanica-Zdrój is a town in Kłodzko County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland.It lies approximately south-west of Kłodzko, and south-west of the regional capital Wrocław...
.
Ranked 14th, he finished sixth in the 2004 Fifth European Individual Chess Championship in Antalya
Antalya
Antalya is a city on the Mediterranean coast of southwestern Turkey. With a population 1,001,318 as of 2010. It is the eighth most populous city in Turkey and country's biggest international sea resort.- History :...
with 7.5 points (+5−2=5), including a draw against the eventual champion Vassily Ivanchuk.
Navara won the Czech Chess Championship
Czech Chess Championship
The Czech National Chess Championship is the chess competition, which determines the best Czech Republic chess player.-History:First national championships were held before founding of independent Czechoslovakia as the championships of Bohemia every second year between 1905 and 1913...
in 2004, 2005 and 2010.
In 2005, Navara participated in the World Chess Cup, but was eliminated by Predrag Nikolić
Predrag Nikolic
Predrag Nikolić is a Bosnian chess grandmaster.He first competed for the Yugoslav Championship in 1979, taking a share of second place. The following year and again in 1984, he went one step further and became the Yugoslav national champion...
in the first round.
He was very successful in the 37th Chess Olympiad 2006, having 8.5 points from 12 games against world-class competition.
Navara played several matches in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, drawing with Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He was the official world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he was defeated by Garry Kasparov. He played three matches against Kasparov for the title from 1986 to 1990, before becoming FIDE World Champion once...
(+0−0=2) in 2005 and Boris Gelfand
Boris Gelfand
Boris Abramovich Gelfand is a Belarus-born Israeli chess Grandmaster. He won the 2011 Candidates Tournament and will challenge Viswanathan Anand for the World Chess Championship 2012.-Biography:...
(+1−1=2) in 2006 and winning against Nigel Short
Nigel Short
Nigel David Short MBE is an English chess grandmaster earning the title at the age of 19. Short is often regarded as the strongest English player of the 20th century as he was ranked third in the world, from January 1988 – July 1989 and in 1993, he challenged Garry Kasparov for the World Chess...
(+3-0=3) in 2007 and Sergei Movsesian
Sergei Movsesian
Sergei Movsesian is an Armenian chess Grandmaster who used to play for Slovakia, but as of late 2010, Movsesian announced that he plays for his home country of Armenia...
(+1-0=5) in 2011.
In 2007 he was invited for the first time into supertournament
Corus chess tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament formerly called the Corus chess tournament takes place every year, usually in January, in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, part of the larger Beverwijk in the province of North Holland in the Netherlands...
in Wijk aan Zee
Wijk aan Zee
Wijk aan Zee is a small town on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk in the province of North Holland of the Netherlands. The prestigious Tata Steel chess tournament formerly Corus chess tournament and before that called Hoogovens tournament takes place there every year.Due...
, where he replaced Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Morozevich
Alexander Morozevich is a Russian chess Grandmaster. In the November 2011 FIDE list, he had an Elo rating of 2762, making him the 9th-highest rated player in the world, although he has previously ranked as high as second, in the July 2008 list....
. Navara, nicknamed Navara Express by organizers, won 6.5 points of 13 games (+3−3=7) including wins against Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Olegovich Ponomariov is a Ukrainian chess player and former FIDE World Champion.-Early career:Ponomariov was born in Horlivka in Ukraine. In 1994 he placed third in the World Under-12 Championship at the age of ten. In 1996 he won the European Under-18 Championship at the age of just...
and Magnus Carlsen
Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess Grandmaster and chess prodigy who is currently the number-one ranked player in the world. In January 2010 he became the seventh player ranked number one in the world on the official FIDE rating list...
and defending draws with black pieces against Kramnik
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Champion from 2006 to 2007...
and Topalov
Veselin Topalov
Veselin Aleksandrov Topalov is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster. He currently has the sixth highest rating in the world, and was the challenger facing world champion Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2010, losing the match 6½–5½....
and finished in 7th place.
In August 2007 Navara finished first in the big Ordix Open with a score of 9.5/11 on progressive score tiebreak. In September he played in Karlovy Vary tourney where he finished 3rd half a point behind the winners Ponomariov and Movsesian.
He also participated in the European Team Chess Championship where he scored 6 points out of 9 game on the first board for the Czech team.
In November 2007 Navara participated in the World Chess Cup. He beat Ivanov of US in the first round but was defeated in the tie-breaks by Rublevsky in the second round.
In 2007-2008 Navara played in the Torneo di Capodanno in Italy, scoring 3/8 (+1 -3 =4). He played in the Baku Grand Prix Tournament in 2008, scoring 5.5/13 (+2 -4 =7).
Navara obtained a degree in logic at Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, it was the first university in Central Europe and is also considered the earliest German university...
.
Notable chess games
Below is an excerpt from an article by Lubomir Kavalek in The Washington PostThe Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
on August 3, 2009:
In the following game, played in the Ordix Open, the Czech grandmaster David Navara defeats former top Armenian grandmaster Rafael Vaganian. Navara decides to test a powerful pawn sacrifice in the Tarrasch variation of the French defense. It was introduced into tournament play more than 60 years ago by the Australian Cecil Purdy, the first correspondence world champion, and it still carries plenty of punch today. Vaganian's problems began after he lost the battle of the only open file and allowed the Czech GM to claim victory with neat tactical play.
Navara-Vaganjan
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.Ngf3 Nf6 5.e5 Nfd7 6.c3 Nc6 7.Bd3 Qb6 8.0-0!? (A promising pawn sacrifice that became fashionable after the game Korchnoi-Udovcic, Leningrad 1967.) 8...cxd4 9.cxd4 Nxd4 10.Nxd4 Qxd4 11.Nf3 Qb6 12.Qc2 (Purdy's choice. 12.Qa4 Qb4 13.Qc2 was also played in the past, but there is no need to improve the position of the black queen.) 12...h6 13.Bd2 (White finished his development and is prepared to seize the c-file with his heavy pieces. Some players prefer 13.Bf4.) 13...Nc5?! (Walking into a dangerous pin. Exchanging the bishops with 13...Bb4, leads to the weakening of the dark squares after 14.Bxb4 Qxb4 15.a3 Qe7 16.Rac1 0-0 17.Qc7! with an unpleasant grip.) 14.Be3! (Threatening to win outright with 15.Rac1. Black must do something about the pin.) 14...Qb4 (Another way to break the pin is 14...Qa5?!, but after 15.b4! Qxb4 16.Rab1 Nxd3!? 17.Rxb4 Nxb4 white's material advantage should tell in the long run. The game Zapolskis-Jorgensen, Dos Hermanas 2004, continued 14...Bd7 15.Rac1 Rc8 16.Qd2 Qd8 17.Bb1 Be7 18.Nd4 a6 19.f4! and after 19...f5 20.exf6 Bxf6 21.Bg6+ Kf8 22.Rxc5 Rxc5 23.Nxe6+ Bxe6 24.Bxc5+ Be7 25.Bxe7+ Qxe7 26.f5 Bf7 27.Rc1 Qd7 28.Qf4 Bxg6 29.fxg6+ Ke8 30.Qe3+ Qe7 31.Rc8+ black resigned.) 15.Be2 Bd7 16.Rfc1 Rc8 17.Nd4 Qa5 (After 17...Na4, the queen sacrifice 18.Qxc8+! leads to a powerful attack after 18...Bxc8 19.Rxc8+ Kd7 20.Rac1 Nc5 21.Ra8! with fairy-tale variations such as 21...Qxb2 22.Nb3! Qxe2 23.Bxc5 Qxa2 24.Bb6! Bd6 25.Rxa7 with white's advantage or 21...a6 22.b3! f5 23.a3! Qxa3 24.Bb5+ Ke7 25.Nxf5+ Kf7 26.Be8+ Kg8 27.Ne7+! Bxe7 28.Bg6+ Bf8 29.Rxf8+! Kxf8 30.Bxc5+ and white wins.) 18.a3 Qd8 19.Bb5! (Threatening to win with 20.b4.) 19...Ra8 (Abandoning the c-file leads to problems.) 20.b4 Na6? (A blunder, but after 20...Bxb5 21.Nxb5 a6 22.Nd4 Ne4 23.f3 Ng5 24.Qc7 Rb8 25.Nb3 Be7 26.Ba7 white should win.) 21.Nxe6! fxe6 22.Bxa6 b6 (A sad admission. White mates after 22...bxa6 23.Qg6+ Ke7 24.Bc5 mate.) 23.Qg6+ Ke7 24.Rc3 Qe8 25.Qg4 Kf7 26.Bd3 Kg8 27.Bg6 Qd8 28.Rac1 (Black can hardly move.) 28...a5 29.b5 (Another winning line is 29.Rc7, for example after 29...axb4 white deflects the black queen from the pawn on e6 with 30.Rxd7! Qxd7 31.Rc7! Rxa3 32.g3, since 32...Qxc7 allows 33.Qxe6+ and white mates; or after 29...Bc5 30.Qf3 Be8 31.Bf7+ Kh7 32.Qg4 Rf8 33.Bxh6! white mates soon.) 29...Bc5 30.Bxc5 bxc5 31.Rxc5 Qe7 32.b6 Rb8 33.b7 Qf8 (33...Rxb7 is met by 34.Rc8+!) 34.Rc7 Black resigned.
Other notable games include:
- David Navara vs Zdenko Kozul, 37th Chess Olympiad 2006, Sicilian, Richter-Rauzer Attack, 7...a6 Defense, 8...Bd7 (B67), 1-0 Both sides are attacking, but Navara is the first to mate.
- David Navara vs Peter Svidler, 37th Chess Olympiad 2006, Queen's Gambit Declined Slav (D16), 1-0 A typical breakthrough 19. d5! and a nice mate combination ending the game.
- Ivan Cheparinov vs David Navara, European Team Chess Championship, Ruy Lopez A spectacular and unexpected queen sac 27...Qf2!!
- Alexander Moiseenko vs David Navara, World Cup 2011, Queen's Indian Defense After a long struggle, Navara offered a draw in a winning position. Earlier in the game, Navara accidentally touched a piece, but Moiseenko did not insist on the "touch-move" rule that would have lost him the game. Moiseenko was subsequently outplayed by the Czech GM, who with a forced mate on the board offered him a draw.
External links
- David Navara's home page - last updated in 2005