Emil Sutovsky - Successes

Successes

Sutovsky learned to play chess at the age of four. He achieved notable successes by winning the World Junior Chess Championship in Medellín in 1996, finishing first at the double-round-robin VAM Hoogeveen Tournament in 1997 (ahead of Judit Polgár, Loek van Wely, and Vasily Smyslov), and winning Hastings 2000 (ahead of Alexey Dreev, Ivan Sokolov and Jonathan Speelman). In 2001 Sutovsky recorded perhaps the greatest individual result by an Israeli player: seeded only 35th among the 204 participants (including 143 Grandmasters) in the second European Chess Championship in Ohrid, Macedonia, he started with an ordinary 3.5−2.5. He then started a series of resounding victories (e.g. ), and finished the tournament with 9.5−3.5, along with future FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, and ahead of Judit Polgár, Nigel Short, and many other world-class players . He went on to beat Ponomariov 1.5−0.5 in a rapid chess tie-break, and was crowned European Champion.

In 2003 he tied for first with Alexander Beliavsky in the Vidmar Memorial. In 2007, he placed second at the 8th European Chess Championship, held in Dresden, following a play-off with the eventual winner GM Vladislav Tkachiev and GMs Dmitry Jakovenko and Ivan Cheparinov.

He finished tied for first in two major open tournaments in 2005: in Gibraltar he scored 7.5−2.5 (the same score as Levon Aronian, Zahar Efimenko, Kiril Georgiev, and Alexei Shirov), and at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow he scored 6.5−2.5 (the same as Vasily Ivanchuk, Alexander Motylev, Andrei Kharlov, and Vladimir Akopian). His superior tie-break in the latter gave him first place (ahead of such a stars like Aronian,Radjabov,Mamedyarov,Ponomariov,Karjakin etc...) and with it an invitation to the prestigious Dortmund tournament later in the year, in which he beat classical world champion Vladimir Kramnik, scoring 3.5−5.5.

Sutovsky played in three FIDE Knock-out World Championships: in 1997 he was eliminated in the first round by Guildardo Garcia; in 2000 he was eliminated in the first round by Igor Nataf; in 2001 he was eliminated in round three by eventual runner-up Vasily Ivanchuk.

He did not participate in the controversial 2004 championship because of concerns about how its hosts, Libya, would treat Israeli players.

He took part in FIDE World Cup 2005, FIDE World Cup 2007 and FIDE World Cup 2009 with a moderate success. In 2007, Sutovsky, known for his vast theoretical knowledge and analytical skills became a second of US Grandmaster Gata Kamsky, helping him to win the FIDE World Cup 2007.

In September 2009 Sutovsky won Inventi Chess Tournament in Antwerp. In 2011, he tied for 2nd-3rd with Dmitry Andreikin in the Baku Open.

For the last decade, Sutovsky has retained his position in top-100 (his peak was 17th place in the world in October 2004 list), crossing 2700 in a live rating many times.