Boris Gelfand
Country: Israel
Date of birth: June 24, 1968
Rating July 1, 2010: 2739

Boris Gelfand makes his debut in the NH Tournament, but he is a most familiar face for the Association Max Euwe. After all he already played in the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament no fewer than twelve times. Gelfand is a model professional who has been a member of the world top for more than twenty years. Few chess players come to the game as well prepared as he does and few live with such dedication for their sport.
Gelfand was born in Minsk when Belarus still belonged to the Soviet Union. The first big step in his impressive career was his win in the 1985 Soviet Junior Championship, which he followed up by winning the European Junior Championship. Easily the most memorable achievement in his early career was his win, ahead of 139(!) grandmasters, at the Palma de Mallorca GMA World Cup qualifier in 1989.
Gelfand confidently continued to develop into a seasoned world-class player who spends most of the time in the world’s top ten. He’s won countless first prizes in international competitions, including top honours in Biel 1993, Dos Hermanas 1994, Belgrade 1995, Vienna 1996, Tilburg 1996 (shared with Jeroen Piket), Polanica Zdroj 1998 and 2000, Cannes 2002, Ashdod 2004, Pamplona 2004, Bermuda 2005 and Biel 2005. After he had moved to Israel he led the Israeli team to the silver medals at the 2003 European Team Championship.
At 42 Gelfand is still as ambitious as ever and he continues to belong to the very best. It wasn’t for nothing that a Russian journalist compared him to Italian soccer star Paolo Maldini after Gelfand had finished second in the World Championship Tournament in Mexico. In the meantime Maldini has quit, but Gelfand has no such plans. And rightly so. Last December he was the oldest participant in the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, but that didn’t stop him from claiming overall victory in a field of 128 players. After this triumph he was received as a hero in Israel, and for a while he spent little time on chess. As a result his play suffered, but at the recent Kings’ tournament in Romania he was back with a shared second place behind Magnus Carlsen.

Peter Svidler
Country: Russia
Date of birth: June 17, 1976
Rating July 1, 2010: 2734

Peter Svidler appears on the ‘Experience’ team for the second time. Last year for a long time he seemed to be on his way to post the highest score, but following an unsettling defeat in the penultimate round against Fabiano Caruana that honour was claimed by Peter Heine Nielsen. Still, Svidler’s result of 6 out of 10 was only a fraction below his expected score. In the past year the Russian lived up to expectations in most of the events he played in and maintained his position in the world rankings, where he is now in 15th place. His best tournament was the Russian Super Final where he finished second.
Svidler is only 34 years old, but he can boast more than enough experience to represent the Experience team. His first splash he made in 1994, when at the age of 18 he became Russian champion in Elista. To prove that this victory had not been a coincidence he repeated it in 1995 and 1997. His international breakthrough came in 1997 when he shared first place with Kramnik and Kasparov in Tilburg and defeated the latter in their direct encounter.
Following these first successes he hit a slump from which he only recovered in 2003. He won the Russian championship for the fourth time and was a member of the Russian team that won the European Championship in Plovdiv. Svidler has been a member of the world top ever since, as witness his shared second place, with Anand behind Topalov at the 2005 World Championship Tournament and his fifth place at the 2007 World Championship Tournament. Although his rating has been over 2700 for many years, his results can be erratic. In early 2006 he had his highest rating ever. From these 2765 points he dropped several dozen only to return to 2763 in early 2008. From there he went down again, but following a rather stable period he is now back at 2734. Equally stable is his passion for cricket. Last year he couldn’t believe his luck when on the free day he had the chance to attend a match between the Netherlands and Afghanistan.

Peter Heine Nielsen
Country: Denmark
Date of birth:  May 24, 1973
Rating July 1, 2010: 2700

Peter Heine Nielsen was the star of the previous NH Tournament. The Danish grandmaster didn’t lose a single game and with a score of 6,5 from 9 he finished half a point ahead of his main rival Peter Svidler. In the past year Nielsen played very little, but nevertheless he managed to raise his rating to a new personal record of 2700. This gain was mainly due to his considerable contribution (6,5 from 9) to the championship of his club Baden-Baden in the German Bundesliga. But for the rest he was barely active as a player and spent most of his time working as a second for Vishy Anand before and during the World Championship Match against Veselin Topalov in Sofia. Over the past years Nielsen has become a much respected super-second. He’s not only been working intensely with Anand, but also with Magnus Carlsen, Before Carlsen’s rise to the top, Nielsen was the strongest grandmaster in the Scandinavian countries and his best results were achieved in these regions, taking first place in the 2001 North Sea Cup, the 2004 Sigeman tournament and the 2005 Drammen tournament. But he also won the Hastings Premier in 2002/03 and the European Internet Championship in 2005.
In 2006 he came to Krasnapolsky for the first time, as the second of Carlsen, who on that occasion qualified for the Amber tournament in Nice. But as said, in the past years Nielsen has been working mostly for Anand. The tall Dane helped him at numerous events, such as the 2007 World Championship that the Indian won in Mexico City, the 2008 World Championship Match he won against Kramnik in Bonn, and his recent victory over Topalov. But when Nielsen sits down at the board himself he tends to be efficient. In 2008 he shared first place at the Politiken Cup with 8 out of 10 and at the Olympiad in Dresden he collected 7 points from 10 games at the first board of the Danish team.

Loek van Wely
Country: The Netherlands
Date of birth: October 7, 1972
Rating July 1, 2010: 2677

Loek van Wely makes his second appearance on the Experience team and will be highly motivated to improve on his result of last year. Whatever he tried, time and again his games ended in draws and when he finally even lost a remarkable theoretical duel from Daniel Stellwagen, he ended up with a minus score. If the signs do not deceive us things will certainly go better this time, for the Dutch grandmaster has been playing well lately. The Dutch championship may not have gone according to wish (again too many draws), but he won first prize in the Chicago Open, collected 5 out of 7 in the Bundesliga, 2 from 2 in the German Cup and an impressive 8,5 from 10 in the French Top 16.
At 37 Van Wely is obviously still a young man, but he can look back on a rich career and is a logical choice for the Experience team. Between 2000 and 2005 he won the Dutch Championship six times in a row, thus equalling the record of Max Euwe. His finest results with the Dutch team were the gold medals at the European Championships of 2001 and 2005.
Van Wely is generally known as an uncompromising player with a great will to win, a reputation that he earned with a string of successes in the major opens in the 1990s. In 1991 he won the Berlin Open, in 1992 the World Open in Philadelphia and in 1995 he also succeeded in winning the New York Open. In addition he also struck in Antwerp in 1996 and in Amsterdam in 2001. But he was also successful in closed tournaments such as Polanica Zdroj in 1999. In 2006 he won another major open, Foxwoods.
Last year Van Wely caused quite some confusion among the Dutch press when he announced a sabbatical. Many believed that he would hardly play any chess in 2010 or no chess at all, but he had been speaking about 2011. No doubt this intention will be an additional boost to do well in Amsterdam.

Ljubomir Ljubojevic
Country: Serbia
Date of birth: November 2, 1950
Rating July 1, 2010: 2572

In a way, Ljubomir Ljubojevic was the sensation of last year’s NH Tournament. Although he is barely active as a player anymore, he once again showed the Rising Stars his deep understanding of the game. He played with self-confidence and scored 5,5 from 10 (three wins, two losses and five draws), clearly outperforming his current rating.
The NH Tournament is basically the only tournament the Serbian grandmaster still plays in these days. In 2009 he also made an exception for the rapid tournament in Pamplona and the ‘Honorary Group’ at the 70th Corus tournament last year, which he won with a score of 4 out of 6, ahead of Kortchnoi, Timman and Portisch. In the past year he played no more than only one game in the Dutch team competition (which he won).
For several decades ‘Ljubo’ was the most successful player of Yugoslavia, one of the strongest and most popular chess countries in the world. His comet-like rise started after he had finished second in the 1970 European Junior Championship and was invited to play in a grandmaster tournament in Sarajevo. Ljubojevic won that tournament and already the next year he earned the grandmaster title. In the years that followed he kept winning tournaments and in the 1983 world rankings he was in third place behind Karpov and Kasparov. It is hard to say which were his best tournament achievements, but there can be no denying that his shared first places (and the fascinating neck-and-neck races) with Kasparov in Brussels in 1987 and in Barcelona in 1989 are among them. In an interview Ljubojevic himself also mentioned his victory in Linares in 1985, his 11 out of 14 super-score on first board at the 1982 Olympiad in Lucerne, and several tournaments that he won way ahead of the rest, such as Las Palmas in 1974 and ’75 and Manila in 1975. But in that case we haven’t even mentioned the following first places: Wijk aan Zee 1976, Buenos Aires 1980 and ’81, Belgrade 1987 and Reggio Emilia 1991. And, of course, his overall victory at the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament in Monaco in 1993.
Thanks to his aggressive and imaginative style Ljubojevic won over many fans and his often unusual opening ideas inspired countless followers.

Hikaru Nakamura
Country: United States
Date of birth: December 9, 1987
Rating July 1, 2010: 2729

Hikaru Nakamura returns to Amsterdam to wipe out the memory of last year’s NH Tournament. From the first till the very last round he was ill and although he kept fighting (and won a spectacular game against Beliavsky), he finished on a poor 3,5 from 10.
Nakamura is the big hope of American chess. Last year he convincingly won the U.S. Championship in Saint Louis, where all his main rivals took part. It was the second time he won the national championship, the first time was in 2004 in San Diego when he was only 16 years old.
Nakamura learned to play chess when he was seven years old and soon he was having his first successes. At the age of ten years and 79 days he became the youngest American International Master in history. Exactly five years later he broke the legendary record of Bobby Fischer when at the age of 15 years and 79 days he became the youngest American International Grandmaster of all time. Nakamura’s play is characterized by deep concentration, great determination and an enormous will to win. Over the past years he has worked up his way to the over-2700 elite. Playing for the American team he won a bronze medal at the 2006 Olympiad in Turin and one year later he finished in shared first place in Gibraltar and won the Magistral d’Escacs in Barcelona. In 2009 he was unstoppable in the French league, where he scored 7,5 points from 8 games with a performance rating of 3028 and he also scored a fine tournament win in San Sebastian. Early this year he excelled at the Team World Championship in Bursa and had a great start in Wijk aan Zee. After seven rounds he was in the lead, but he lost ground in the second half of the tournament. In the U.S. Championship he reached the semi-finals, but failed to keep his title.
Although currently he focuses more on classical chess, Nakamura remains a feared force in quicker play. In 2007 he won the rapid tournament in Corsica and in 2008 he triumphed in Cap d’Agde. Nakamura is one of the best blitz players in the world and in bullet (games with one minute for all the moves) he is in a class of his own.

Fabiano Caruana
Country: Italy
Date of birth: July 30, 1992
Rating July 1, 2010: 2697

Fabiano Caruana appears on the Rising Stars team for the third time and once again he is one of the favourites for the ticket to the Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament. The first two times he was far from lucky. In 2008 he scored 6,5 from 10. An impressive result, but it didn’t suffice because of the explosion of Wang Yue from China (7,5 from 10). Last year Caruana scored 5 from 10 against stronger opposition and this time he fell short by half a point. The consolation prize he got was an invitation to visit the Amber tournament for a week together with a good friend.
In the past years Caruana has shot up the world rankings with leaps and bounds. On the January 1 list of 2006, 13-year-old Caruana ‘only’ had a rating of 2409. One year on his rating had gone up to 2492 and one further year on it had become 2598. In the meantime he has ascended to 2697 and there can be no doubt that soon he will break through the 2700 barrier.
Caruana was born in Miami, in the United States, where he broke several records. In September 2002, when he was ten, he defeated his first grandmaster in an official tournament and in 2007, on July 15, he became the youngest grandmaster in American history at the age of fourteen years and 350 days. In both cases he broke the old record of Hikaru Nakamura.
Besides an American passport, Caruana also holds an Italian passport and so at the end of 2006 he played in the Italian championship for the first time. He finished in a tie for first place but lost the play-off against Godena. In his second attempt he became Italian champion with a score of 9,5 out of 11, three points clear of the closest pursuers. In 2007 he chose to represent Italy in international competitions and together with his family he moved to Budapest to be closer to the European circuit and to train with grandmaster Alexander Chernin. Last year they moved to Lugano and in Amsterdam he will be assisted by grandmaster Boris Avrukh.
Caruana likes to play in the Netherlands. In 2008 he swept the C-Group in Wijk aan Zee and one year later he also was the best in the B-Group. This year his role in the A-Group was more modest, but his 5,5 from 13 was more or less in line with his rating.

Wesley So
Country: The Philippines
Date of birth: October 9, 1993
Rating July 1, 2010: 2674

Sixteen-year-old Wesley So makes his debut in the NH Tournament, but the rising star from the Philippines barely needs an introduction in the Netherlands. Last year he won the C-Group of the Corus Tournament with an impressive score and this year he was one of the contenders for first place in the B-Group until shortly before the end he lost a dramatic game against Anish Giri. From an international perspective So attracted even more attention one month earlier at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, where in Round 2 he knocked out Vasily Ivanchuk and next also eliminated Gata Kamsky. In Round 4 it took the experienced Russian grandmaster Malakhov to put an end to the fairy-tale.
In the Philippines So has been hailed as a prodigy that will surpass the achievements of the legendary Eugene Torre. When he was twelve years and ten months old, he secured the title of International Master. For the title of International Grandmaster he needed fourteen years, one month and 28 days, which at that point won him seventh place on the list of youngest grandmasters of all time. At the 2006 Olympiad in Turin he made his debut on the national team of the Philippines at the age of twelve, which was another record. And later that year, when he was thirteen, he also became the youngest winner ever of the Open Championship of the Philippines. In 2008 he won the $ 45,000 first prize at the Dubai Open, a feat no one had accomplished at the age of fourteen before.
So grew up in Bacoor, in the province of Cavite south of Manila. His father taught him to play chess at the age of six and when he was nine he started to play in junior competitions. He distinguished himself by his aggressive style and his enthusiasm to sacrifice pieces for an attack. His opponents still fear him for his enormous calculating powers, which it is said, he developed due to lack of other training possibilities by playing endlessly against his computer.

Anish Giri
Country: The Netherlands
Date of birth: June 28, 1994
Rating July 1, 2010: 2672

When two years ago, Anish Giri, together with his Russian mother, Nepalese father and two sisters, settled in the Netherlands, it was clear that Dutch chess life was enriched by a remarkable talent. After all Giri had already won the Russian U-12 Junior Championship, a feat he accomplished when his family was living in Japan because of his father’s work. Still, no one could have expected at the time how remarkable his talent really was. But lo and behold, it’s two years later and with a rating of 2672 Giri occupies the 62nd spot in the world rankings and no one doubts that before long he will be the best Dutch chess player. And if there is someone cherishing doubts, he should consult World Champion Vishy Anand, who last April invited Giri over for some training games as part of his final preparations for his world championship match against Topalov.
The Dutch press also embraced the chess prodigy and there has not been a newspaper that didn’t run a portrait of the young talent. In those portraits his mother was often quoted, who stressed that for her it was most important that he grew up to be a good person, and another favourite was Giri’s own down-to-earth remark that first he intends to go to university and that next he may see if he has any professional ambitions in chess.
His leap forward in the past year was awesome: in twelve months he assembled 154 points, a rare feat. Last year in Haaksbergen, in a relatively weak championship, he won the Dutch title for the first time and one month later he held his own (and remained unbeaten) in a double round-robin in Hoogeveen against Ivanchuk, Judit Polgar and Tiviakov. The biggest sensation he sprang in Wijk aan Zee, where he won the strong B-Group (Elo gain 33 points!) and qualified for next year’s main group. Another highlight was his tour de force in the Sigeman Tournament in Malmö, Sweden, where he only dropped half a point and reached a Tournament Performance Rating of 2920.
Besides chess, Giri attends school at the Grotius College in Delft and, as a matter of course, he has mastered the Dutch language and speaks it impeccably.

David Howell
Country: England
Date of birth: November 14, 1990
Rating July 1, 2010: 2616

David Howell makes his debut on the Rising Stars team,  but the 19-year-old Englishman has been familiar with the limelight for many years already. Already at a tender age did he have results that earned him the epithet of prodigy and a lot of attention in the British press. When he was eight he made the front age of The Times as the youngest player ever to beat a grandmaster in an official competition. At the Mind Games he defeated John Nunn in a blitz game. In 2001 he shared first place at the U-12 European Junior Championship and in that same year he shared second place at the U-12 World Championship. Another achievement that led to numerous invitations to television shows was the draw he made against Kramnik in 2002 in a friendly match of four games. Or, as the English press recorded: the youngest chess player ever to score against a reigning world champion in an official match.
In 2007 he became, as expected, the youngest English grandmaster in history, six months quicker than the former record-holder Luke McShane. The past few years his career has been less turbulent, but Howell continued to have fine results. In 2008 he won the Andorra Open with 8 out of 9 ahead of  Julio Granda en Mihail Marin and in that same year he came third in the U-20 Junior World Championship. His finest international experience he had last December at the London Chess Classic, the strongest event on English soil in many years. With six draws (one of them a great fight with Magnus Carlsen) and one win he finished in shared third place behind Carlsen and Kramnik. In January of this year he shared first place at the Hastings tournament.
Of late Howell has been playing semi-professionally and he is still hesitating if he should put his money on chess or follow his friends who are studying at university. Perhaps the NH Tournament can help him to find an answer to this question.