About LÉKÓ PÉTER
Peter Leko was born on 8th of September 1979 in Szabadka/Subotica. He has been living in Szeged since the age of one where he was awarded honorary citizenship last year by the City Assembly. He has been playing chess since his age of seven. In 1994 he became grandmaster and U16 World Chess Champion beating Fishers record. He first appeared in the Hungarian national team on the Moscow Chess Olympiad. As regularly invited participant of the biggest tournaments he could manage to progress gradually on the world rank list.
He won the tournaments of Copenhagen, Havana and Yopal in 1995. In 1997 he was the third in Tilburg and Madrid, in 1998 the second in Tilburg. In 1999 he gained first place in Dortmund leaving Vladimir Kramnik, Vishwanathan Anand, Michael Adams and Anatoly Karpov behind. He played at the first table of the Hungarian Team in the European Championship in Baku where the team won silver medal after 14 unsuccessful years. The start of the following year was also great for him. In Budapest he won to Alexander Khalifman, the FIDE World Champion title-holder by 4,5-1,5 on a six-game match sponsored by WFG. Only half point missed to take the bronze medal in the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul.
In January 2001 he played a twelve-game rapid match against Vladimir Kramnik. The World Champion was only able to win by a very tight 7-5. From that time on Peter has had a new coach. With Arshak Petrosian a new age has begun to our grandmaster. In the year 2002 he achieved several successes. He won the Dubai Grand Prix, he was second in Essen and reached a very significant triumph by winning the World Champion candidates tournament and became Kramniks official challenger. At the Olympiad in Bled he remained undefeated as the first table player of the silver medalist Hungarian team.
Leko started the year 2003 also superbly. The trade press was enthusiastic about his triumph in Linares. His combinative play compelled admiration. The different problems in connection with the World Championship affected his performance negatively, but from the January 2004 he is back on track again. In Wijk aan Zee he finished unbeaten behind Vishy Anand on the second place tied with Adams. In Linares he has been quite long on the top but unfortunately he was deprived of the triumph by an unlucky loss to Kramnik and he was only the second tied with Kasparov. In the Petrosian Memorial Tournament in Moscow as a guest player of the Armenian national team he showed the best individual performance
In the World Championship final in Brissago he managed to stand up after a false start. After losing the first game he was able to equalize in the fifth, moreover he took the lead in the eighth by a superb win. Only a half point was needed to win the crown but the experienced opponent won the last game and defended his title.
In January Peter Leko won unbeaten in Wijk aan Zee so he can be proud of being able to win every remarkable chess tournament. This was a great achievement; among others he could beat Anand with black pieces. In Linares he was the only undefeated player of the seven and the 14 draws can only be written to the account of tiredness. He drew Adams by a great finish in Miskolc last year. After the eight exciting games the struggle ended in 4-4. In Dortmund he was only eighth out of ten and in the FIDE World Championship in San Luis he had to settle for the fifth place.
The weaker start influenced his performance shown in the Corus 2006 super tournament. The first half oh the traditional Linares Tournament has exceptionally been organized in Morelia, Mexico. As one of the most exclusive tournament of the year 2006 with a category of 20 and an ELO average of 2732. Leko started with a brilliant double win and had another victory on the fourth day so he concluded the Mexican half unbeaten, with half point advantage.
Our Grandmaster went on performing well in Linares, after 10 rounds he was on the lead by one point, however, with losing his last two games he finished only on the fourth place. That was rather depressing for him since he could be unbeaten for 12 games showing a balanced performance. He did not take part at the Olympiad in Turin and tried to focus on the Dortmund tournament where he, however, missed the first place again, this time he suffered a defeat in the last round against Kramnik.
In the course of the rapid duel fought by Leko Peter and the twelfth world champion of chess, Anatolij Karpov in the new shrine of chess, the National Theater of Miskolc, very interesting games could be observed by the competent audience also from the point of view of opening theory. Karpov protected his difficult positions with an unbelievable persistency and accelerated brilliantly when he hardly had any time left. Our Grandmaster claimed a 4,5-3,5 victory with a triumph in the third game, the other parties were concluded with draws full of struggle. The main patron of the event, Sandor Kali, Mayor of Miskolc declared the intention to continue the series of high level chess duels. Peter Leko plays in year 2007 against the Russian world champion, Vladimir Kramnik.
Leko concluded the year 2006 with a brilliant triumph. in the Memorial tournament of a category 20 organized in the Central Chess Club, Moscow for the memory of Mihail Tal our Grandmaster finished with 5,5 points just as the Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov and the Armenian Levon Aronian but with the Berger-Sonneborn evaluation Lékó could be victorious. Peter last tournament victory happened in 2005 on the Corus super tournament, he had to wait for a long time for the recent success. He could adopt his preparedness in the opening theory, he did not have any difficulties during the tournament, and moreover, his victories against Boris Gelfand and Aleksandr Morozevich were rather pretty. Peter played as black five games and remained unbeaten.
Peter Leko started the year 2007 also superbly, defeated Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk in the final match of the 1st ACP World Rapid Cup, organized by the Bank PIVDENNY in Odessa. Grandmasters who showed best results in more than 60 tournaments in the last two seasons, were invited to participate in the tournament. Lekos duel against the Russian world champion, Vladimir Kramnik is going to be one of the highlights of the year, a serious challenge before the world champion candidates series in May. Peter Peter Leko is in the eight position on the actual world ranking list with an ELO-points 2738.
Peter Leko’s Triumphs:
1995 Copenhagen
1997 Havana, Yopal
1999 Dortmund
2002 Dubai (rapid)
2002 Dortmund (Canditates Tournament)
2003 Linares2005 Wijk aan Zee
2006 Moscow
2007 Odessa (1st ACP Rapid World Cup)
http://www.lekocarlsen.hu/eng/leko.html
Go Peter Go!!!!!!!!!!!