ILLYA NYZHNYK (born Sep-27-1996, 28 years old) Ukraine PRONUNCIATION: [what is this?] FM (2007); IM (2009); Grandmaster (2010). Early Years A chess prodigy, Nyzhnyk was born in Vinnytsya and started playing chess at age 4. At the age of ten, the Ukrainian prodigy shot to world wide prominence by winning Group B of the 2007 Moscow Open, scoring 8.5/9 points with a 2633 performance in a field of 324 players, including two International Masters and numerous other titled players. Championships <Youth – national and continental> He has had a series of excellent results in the Ukrainian youth championships the most notable being first place in the U10 Championships in 2005 and 2006, in the U12 Championship in 2006, and in the U16 Championship in 2008. In September 2007, and still 10 years of age, he scored 8.5/9 to win the U12 European Championship held in Sibenik, Croatia. A year later in September 2008 year, he won the U16 European Championship held in Herceg Novi in Montenegro. In 2010, he came 2nd in the Ukraine U18 Championship. <Youth – world> In July 2005, at the age of 8, Nyzhnyk competed in the World U12 championship in Belfort, France, scoring 7.0/11, and coming in 17th in a field of 125. He re-entered the same event in 2006 and 2007, scoring 2nd place on each occasion. In October 2006, shortly after his tenth birthday, he was =2nd with Jorge Cori and Nijat Abasov (both now GMs) behind Robert Aghasaryan in the U12 World Championship in Batumi, Georgia. In November 2007, he scored 9.5/11 enabling him to become runner up (on count back) behind US player Daniel Naroditsky in the World U12 Championship held in Antalya, Turkey. In 2010 he came =3rd in the World U16 in Turkey. <Junior> One of Nyzhnyk’s exceptional early achievements was first place in the Ukrainian U20 Championships in April 2010 when he was still 13 years old. In 2010 also scored 8.5/13 at the World Junior Championship (2010) to come =7th-15th Continental At the 13th European Individual Championship (2012), Nyzhnyk scored an excellent 7/11 (+4 =6 -1; TPR 2687) to finish 43rd, 68 places above his seeding and breaking through 2600 in the ratings. Standard Tournaments Nyzhnyk was a tournament veteran from an early age. Notable results included a 2330 performance (coming 11th in a field of 17) in a category 3 tournament in Lugansk, Ukraine, while still only 9 years old and sixth place in the Independence Cup tournament in Kiev in August 2008 (performance rating of 2471) in a field of 70 players. In April 2008 Nyzhnyk won the 6th Nabokov Memorial in Kiev with 8.5/11, scoring a GM norm. In December 2009, Nyzhnyk scored a sensational first place ahead of Jan Werle and Dimitri Reinderman at the Groningen Chess Festival (2009), scoring 7.5/9, his second GM norm, and a 2741 performance rating for the tourney. In 2010, he came 3rd in the Staufer Open, =4th in the Nord-West-Cup (half point behind the joint leaders), 3rd in the 8th Vladimir Nabokov Memorial GM Tournament, =2nd (4th on countback) in the HSG Open behind Friso Nijboer, and came 1st on count back with 7/9 at the Podillia tournament in Khmelnitsky in Ukraine. In December 2010, he scored his 3rd GM norm at Groningen A (where he came =1st) with a round to spare, making him the youngest Grandmaster in the world at 14 years 3 months and 2 days. Richard Rapport was previously the youngest GM. Nyzhnyk started 2011 by coming a solid second behind Daniele Vocaturo at the Tata Steel Group C (2011) (formerly Corus C) tournament, scoring 8.5/13 (+6 -2 =5) with a 2615 performance rating. He followed this up with =1st at the Reykjavik Open (2011) held in March 2011, scoring 7/9 with a TPR of 2688, and with a score of 5.5/9 at the International Tournament in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, in May 2011 against a field that included 7 GMs (+2 -2 =3). In October 2011, he came =4th, half a point behind the three co-leaders, with 6.5/9 in the 15th Unive Open (2011) and also scored 6.5/9 at the 15th Bavarian International Open. 2012 started with a strong performance at Tata Steel Group B (2012), where he scored 7.5/13, adding a handy 17 points in the bimonthly rating period to 1 March 2012. Nyzhnyk closed out 2012 scoring 7.5/9 to win a share of 1st place in the 16th Bavarian International Open, and to boost him to the top of the U18 division in the New Year (2013) lists. A subsequent moderate performance (5.5/9) in the Moscow Open (2013) and poor performances in the Ukrainian Championship (2013) and the European Individual Championships (2013) have cost him top spot in the U18 division. He scored 5.5/9 at the 2014 UT Dallas Spring FIDE Open underwritten by Turner Construction and then bounced back to form by coming =1st at the 42nd Annual World Open held in July 2014 in Arlington, Virginia. In October he won the 2014 Spice Cup Open with 7/9. In May 2015, he scored 6.5/9 at the annual Chicago Open to place =2nd, half a point behind the winner Jeffery Xiong. In July 2015, he placed =1st (6th on tiebreak), at the 2015 World Open. Team Events Nyzhnyk had his first serious experience in the top league playing for the Vinnytsia region on board 2 behind Sergey Fedorchuk in the 3rd all-Ukrainian Games held in Eupatoria in 2007. He played reserve for the PVK-Kievchess Kyiv club in its gold medal-winning seasons of 2008 and 2009. Since then, his season in the 2012 Turkish League was highly successful, when he scored 10/13, a result which elevated his ranking to top of the U16 age group, while his excellent result in the Romanian Team Championships in September helped him maintain his hold of the top spot in the U16s for the rest of 2012. In the 2013-14 season, he played board 2 behind Jan Timman in the gold medal winning SG Köln Porz team in the Bundesliga West. Rapid and Blitz An occasional participant in the faster forms of the game, Nyzhnyk's best results were winning the Ukrainian U18 blitz championship in 2010 and winning the Ukrainian U20 rapid championship in the same year. In April 2014 he won the Anatoliy Olkhovskiy Memorial outright with 20/24. Ratings and Rankings One of the world's top Juniors (U20), Nyzhnyk's highest rating to date was 2637 from December 2012 to February 2013, during which time he reached his highest Junior ranking to date, world #6. Other Nyzhnyk has enrolled at Webster University and joined Susan Polgar's SPICE program late in 2014. (1) References (1) http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com.au/... and Illya Nyzhnyk (kibitz #460) Wikipedia article: Illya Nyzhnyk; Personal web site: http://www.dril-chess.com/; The following link contains a photo of him at 14 years 3 months: http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp... Last updated: 2016-09-16 04:29:00

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page 1 of 28; games 1-25 of 700  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. A Chernyavsky vs I Nyzhnyk 0-1 74 2005 EU-ch U10 A27 English, Three Knights System 2. D Hiti vs I Nyzhnyk   0-1 39 2005 EU-ch U10 E11 Bogo-Indian Defense 3. G Benidze vs I Nyzhnyk   ½-½ 43 2005 EU-ch U10 B21 Sicilian, 2.f4 and 2.d4 4. I Nyzhnyk vs K Nikologorskiy   0-1 27 2005 EU-ch U10 B55 Sicilian, Prins Variation, Venice Attack 5. I Nyzhnyk vs K Tomsia   1-0 39 2005 EU-ch U10 D10 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav 6. I Nyzhnyk vs K Meneses Gonzalez   1-0 28 2005 EU-ch U10 A53 Old Indian 7. I Nyzhnyk vs C Emiroglu 1-0 32 2005 EU-ch U10 C22 Center Game 8. I Nyzhnyk vs S Kovacevic 1-0 40 2005 EU-ch U10 C62 Ruy Lopez, Old Steinitz Defense 9. K Berbatov vs I Nyzhnyk 1-0 22 2005 EU-ch U10 B28 Sicilian, O'Kelly Variation 10. V Rizsonkov vs I Nyzhnyk   ½-½ 64 2005 UKR-ch sf C56 Two Knights 11. A Prihodko vs I Nyzhnyk   1-0 38 2005 UKR-ch sf A06 Reti Opening 12. N Bodnar vs I Nyzhnyk   ½-½ 14 2005 UKR-ch sf D37 Queen's Gambit Declined 13. I Nyzhnyk vs J Baranov   ½-½ 75 2005 UKR-ch sf B18 Caro-Kann, Classical 14. I Nyzhnyk vs M Vasiliev   0-1 64 2005 UKR-ch sf D51 Queen's Gambit Declined 15. I Nyzhnyk vs N Zhornik   0-1 65 2005 UKR-ch sf B55 Sicilian, Prins Variation, Venice Attack 16. I Nyzhnyk vs V Zatonskih   ½-½ 31 2005 UKR-ch sf A84 Dutch 17. E Kilimnik vs I Nyzhnyk   0-1 44 2005 UKR-ch sf E11 Bogo-Indian Defense 18. P Lichmann vs I Nyzhnyk   1-0 75 2005 UKR-ch sf E20 Nimzo-Indian 19. I Nyzhnyk vs V A V Rajesh   ½-½ 52 2005 Wch U12 C00 French Defense 20. I Nyzhnyk vs So 0-1 33 2005 Wch U12 A07 King's Indian Attack 21. I Nyzhnyk vs M Atabayev 1-0 33 2005 Wch U12 A16 English 22. I Nyzhnyk vs Yinglun Teng   1-0 61 2005 Wch U12 A22 English 23. I Nyzhnyk vs J Hapuarachchi   1-0 28 2005 Wch U12 C68 Ruy Lopez, Exchange 24. Negi vs I Nyzhnyk ½-½ 40 2005 Wch U12 C11 French 25. O Mihok vs I Nyzhnyk   1-0 52 2005 Wch U12 C45 Scotch Game  page 1 of 28; games 1-25 of 700

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< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 14 OF 19 ·  Later Kibitzing> Oct-19-10    nummerzwei: 'child labour' 'worthy of compassion' Apparently, the author of the following German TV piece on Nyzhnyk was not overly impressed. http://www.wdr.de/tv/sport_inside/s... (in German) Oct-20-10    whiteshark: <nummerzwei> Here is the full link: http://www.wdr.de/tv/sport_inside/s... Oct-20-10    Kazzak: Wouldn't say the commenter on that German piece was unimpressed, but rather that they were critical of the child labor aspect of pushing Nyzhnyk this hard - but that shows they haven't followed chess much. The quality of Nyzhnyk's chess wasn't questioned. Oct-20-10    nummerzwei: @Kazzak: I didn't want to imply that he disparaged Nyzhnyk's chess. I actually meant it the way you've said it. The portrayal Hilgert receives is also rather negative in the end. In this context, it is noteworthy that Chessbase's introduction to the link featured the remark that Nyzhnyk was "being leveraged very scupulously", as if to counter the video's rather harsh assessment. @whiteshark: Thanks for the link! Oct-21-10    ketchuplover: Looks like we'll C him at Corus/Tata Steel in January! Oct-21-10    DarthStapler: Surely we can get a more up to date photo Dec-29-10    twinlark: Congratulations to Illya Nyzhnyk for making his 3rd GM norm and achieving the GM title, making him the new baby in the GM family. http://www.schaakstadgroningen.nl/ Dec-31-10    ketchuplover: yahoooooooooooooooo :) Jan-01-11    elohah: The Teddy Bear Assassin! Ahh...HA! HA! HA!... Yu stole my thunder, dog. Jan-02-11    wordfunph: 11th youngest GM, congrats Illya Nyzhnyk! Jan-02-11    Kazzak: Yes, a deserved word of congratulations to Mr. Nyzhnyk, who in his games displays an amazing ability to attack where one would think there was no attack to be found. And he seems very adept at making his opponents forget where they last put their queen, which makes for entertainment, and a desire for a video capture of the opponents' faces when they realize what they've done. Will be fun to follow his onward trajectory, to see how high he's aimed. (Claims he learned chess from setting his father's Fischer chess computer on autoplay and just watching it go.) Jan-02-11    shintaro go: Seemed back then that this kid would break Karjakin's record of being the youngest ever to become a GM. Oh well, congratulations Ilya. Btw, only found out now that Rapport of Hungary became the fifth youngest to become a GM, also in 2010. Jan-21-11    Kazzak: Nyzhnyk came close both at the Reykjavik Open and at Bad Wörishofen, but maybe it's good to have to wait a bit. He started out well in both tournaments, and looked set to collect his 3rd norm, but then probably didn't have the stamina required. Opponents find that parts of the board they thought were safe suddenly turn into traps when up against Nyzhnyk. Gislason discovered that: G Gislason vs I Nyzhnyk, 2010 Nyzhnyk has two out of five brilliancy prizes so far at Tata-C. Jan-22-11    0o0o0o0o0: Exciting game and win by the wee man today - king hunt! Jan-22-11    vanytchouck: No more teddy bear, now it's him the grizzly bear !!! Jan-30-11    ketchuplover: good showing in wijk aan zee. hope you have a great year. Jan-30-11    Kazzak: Wonder how Nyzhnyk will vent for missing Kxg6? That's got to hurt. But what a showing in his first outing in Group C. Congratulations. Jan-31-11    Eyal: D Vocaturo vs I Nyzhnyk, 2011 <It was impressive to see how professionally 14-year-old Nyzhnyk dealt with this slightly disappointing result. After shaking hands and writing "1/2" on his score sheet, the Ukrainian boy immediately shook hands one more time, congratulating his opponent with the group victory, and then offered Vocaturo to analyze the game. Somehow all this felt like another sign that Nyzhnyk will become a very, very strong player.> (http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/h...) Feb-01-11    crazybird: Nyzhnyk saying that he wants to play chess professionally and remains open to changing his citizenship for better prospects elsewhere(no offers as yet). http://sport.rbc.ua/other/nizhnik-h... Feb-01-11    twinlark: It's a sad comment on the world no. 2 Ukraine that some of their players think they're better of elsewhere, first Anna Muzychuk, then Sergey Karyakin and now maybe Nyzhnyk, their best prospect for the next generation. Maybe he (or his parents) are playing a canny political game to extract some sort of concessions from the home Federation, and maybe government? Feb-01-11    alexmagnus: I know next to nothing about the Ukrainian chess federation but as someone who grew up in Ukraine (left it when I was 15) I perfectly understand people who want to leave it. Poor, corrupt from bottom to top, with self-serving functioners who care a damn about those they are responsible for and only watch the money in their pocket and economically unstable (the latter was the main reason for my family to leave - you never know what kind of economic crash comes tomorrow)... Feb-03-11    crazybird: Oops..Looks like the previous Nyzhnyk story created quite a flutter in Ukraine. The kid had to appear in a press conference with the minister of sports. Looks like he's going nowhere. http://obozrevatel.com/politics/ukr... http://conf.oboz.ua/conference/1234... Feb-03-11    polarmis: Yep, I updated my article as well... http://www.chessintranslation.com/2... Mar-17-11    shalgo: Nyzhnyk finished in a six-way tie for first at the Reykjavik Open with a 2688 performance rating. http://chess-results.com/tnr41690.a.... Mar-17-11    ketchuplover: cool :) Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 19) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 14 OF 19 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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