Emil Sutovsky

Emil Sutovsky is an International Grandmaster, 2001 European Chess Champion and 2010 Olympic chess gold medalist. Born in 1977 in Baku, Azerbaijan, Sutovsky lives in Holon, Israel. His love for chess began at the age of four. He gained acclaim with a series of decisive victories, starting with the 1996 Junior Chess Championship held in Medellin, Columbia, followed by the 1997 double round-robin VAM Hoogeveen Tournament and the Hastings 2000. Sutovsky has had a successful Olympiad career, representing Israel in nine Chess Olympiads from 1996 to 2018. One of the world top chess players for the last two decades, Sutovsky is also known as a lecturer and chess writer. An avid trivia player and skilled bass-baritone, Sutovsky does not limit himself to chess. He has met in person nearly all the postwar World Chess Champions. Sutovsky’s historical essays on chess history have appeared in a number of publications worldwide, among them the chess magazine Europe Échecs. Recent victories include the 2015 Biel Masters Open Tournament, the 2016 strong Nona 75-ACP Open in Tbilisi, and the 2017 Karpov Tournament in Poikovsky, in which he showed the best statistical result of his entire career. Sutovsky was the president of the Association of Chess Professionals from 2012-2018, and has been serving as FIDE Director General since 2018.