GMErnesto Inarkiev

Ernesto Inarkiev was born in Khaidarkan, Kyrgyzstan, and named after Ernesto Che Guevara. In 1999 he won both the Asian under-16 championship and Kyrgyzstan's national championship. He played in two Olympiads for Kyrgyzstan before moving with his family to Elista in 2000. From 2001 he trained with Mark Dvoretsky. He won the European under-16 title in 2001 and Russian junior championship in 2002, the year he became a grandmaster. He later completed a finance and credit degree in Moscow. With Tomsk-400, he won five Russian team titles and two European Club Cups. His individual victories include the Baku Open in 2014 and Moscow Open in 2015. He won the European Individual Championship in 2016. He also co-organized the Tower of Concord festival in Ingushetia, playing matches against guests including Boris Gelfand and Wei Yi. From 2017 to 2019 he headed Ingushetia's chess federation, supporting a chess-in-schools program. He won the Sharjah Masters in 2019.