Pyotr Veniaminovich Svidler (; born 17 June 1976), commonly known as Peter Svidler, is a Russian chess grandmaster and an eight-time Russian Chess Champion who now frequently commentates on chess.
Svidler has competed in three World Championship tournaments: in the period with split title the FIDE World Chess Championship 2002 and 2005, and after reunification the World Chess Championship 2007. He also played in three Candidates Tournaments, in 2013, 2014 and 2016. His best results at this level have been third in 2005 and 2013.
Eight-time Russian Champion (1994, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2017), he has represented Russia at the Chess Olympiad ten times (1994–2010; 2014) winning five team gold medals, two team silvers and an individual bronze. Svidler won the Chess World Cup 2011, was runner-up in the World Blitz Championship in 2006 and won at Fontys Tilburg, Biel and Gibraltar. Svidler also tied for first at Dortmund, Aeroflot Open and Karpov Poikovsky. He also assisted Vladimir Kramnik at the Classical World Championship matches in 2000 and 2004.
Peter Svidler has been critical of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Chess career
Early years
Svidler learned to play chess when he was six years old. His first trainer was Viacheslav Stjazhkin. He made his tournament debut in 1989, scoring 5 points from 11 games at the USSR Junior Championship in Pinsk. He scored 7/11 for tied eighth place in the USSR Juniors in 1990 and 5/9 in Oakland. He became an International Master in 1991 and the following year tied for first place with Ragim Gasimov and Vadim Zvjaginsev in the last USSR Junior Championship in Yurmala, scoring 8/11.
Svidler twice attended the Botvinnik–Kasparov School. One of those sessions was during the Baleares Open in Mallorca in December 1989. He transferred to the Dvoretsky–Yusupov School upon the former's closure. Mark Dvoretsky said that Svidler had to get written consent from Kasparov's mother in order to avoid accusations of taking students from that school.
In 1993, he started work with coach and International Master Andrei Lukin. In a 2011 question & answer session, Svidler said of Lukin, "The real breakthrough, however, coincided very closely with the moment I started to work with Andrey Mikhailovich Lukin – without him I really might have come to nothing."
1994 was his breakout year, winning the Russian Championship held in Elista with 8/11, winning the under-18 section of the World Youth Championship in Szeged, debuting for Russia at the Chess Olympiad in Moscow, scoring 5.5/8 on second reserve board, and gaining his three Grandmaster norms. Svidler also won the Linares Anibal Open, running alongside the invitational event and tied for first with four other players at the St Petersberg Chigorin Memorial. The short-lived Professional Chess Association in October 1994 ranked him world number 165, rated 2542.
In January 1995, Svidler broke into the top 100 players rated by Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) at number 86 with a rating of 2585. He started with 0/3 at the Vidra Memorial in Haifa but recovered to 6/11 for tied fourth, shared second with 7/9 in April's New York Open, then won the St Petersburg Championship in April. At the Novgorod Open in May–June he scored 6/9 for eighth place on tiebreak. He tied for first place with three players at Novosibirsk. A last round victory against Alexander Morozevich secured his second consecutive Russian Championship on tiebreak from five players with 7.5/11. Svidler rounded off his year placing fourth with 6.5/11 at the strong Groningen Invitational. His success pushed him to 33rd in the world rankings and third strongest junior and 2635 rating.
In 1996, Svidler scored 2.5/5 for fourth place at the Kloosters event in Ter Apel, failed to qualify for the quarter finals of the PCA Rapidplay in April, came fourth with 6.5/11 at Yerevan in May and fifth on tiebreaks with 3.5/7 at Vidra Memorial. At the Tal Blitz Memorial just before the Olympiad, he was mid-table with 9.5/18. His 8.5/11 contribution, including wins in his first four games for Russia, helped win team gold as well as individual bronze on board four at the 32nd Chess Olympiad, but at Fontys Tilburg a couple of losses saw him drop to tenth place on tiebreak with 4.5/11. At Groningen in November, he scored 5.5/11 for seventh place.