GMRustam Kasimdzhanov

Rustam Kasimdzhanov was born in Tashkent in 1979 and learned chess at five. He won the Asian junior championship in 1994, became a grandmaster in 1997 and took the senior Asian title the following year. His 2004 FIDE World Championship victory in Tripoli was an unexpected breakthrough against a field containing many higher-ranked players. His route included victories over Vasyl Ivanchuk, Alexander Grischuk and Veselin Topalov. In the final he defeated Michael Adams in rapid tiebreaks to become Uzbekistan's first FIDE world champion. Kasimdzhanov later established a second career as a trainer and opening analyst. He assisted Viswanathan Anand in his 2008, 2010 and 2012 world-title victories. He also worked with Fabiano Caruana in the run-up to his championship challenge.