David Navara Czech chess player Date of Birth: 27.03.1985 Country: Czech

Biography of David Navara

David Navara is a Czech chess player who learned how to play chess at the age of six from books. He had excellent coaches, Luděk Pachman and Vlastimil Jansa, who took care of his further progress. Navara won several medals at youth championships. In 2001, at the age of 16, he scored 7 points out of 9 games at the European Team Chess Championship. The following year, just three days before his 17th birthday, he achieved the title of Grandmaster.

In 2003, Navara emerged victorious in the open tournament - the Rubinstein Memorial in Polanica Zdrój, Poland. He finished 6th at the 5th European Championship in Antalya, Turkey, scoring 7.5 points out of 12 games, including a draw against the champion Vassily Ivanchuk. Navara became the Czech Champion in 2004 and 2005. In 2005, he participated in the FIDE World Cup, but was defeated by Predrag Nikolić in the first round.

At the Chess Olympiad in Turin in 2006, Navara played on the first board against the strongest chess players in the world and scored 8.5 points out of 12. In 2007, he received an invitation (replacing Alexander Morozevich) to the super tournament "Corus" in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. With victories over Ruslan Ponomariov and draws against Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov, Navara scored 6.5 points out of 13 and finished in 7th place.

In 2005, Navara played a match against Anatoly Karpov in Prague, and in 2007, he played against Boris Gelfand. Both matches ended in a draw. As of April 2008, Navara's Elo rating was 2672, making him the 49th ranked player in the world. He reached his highest rating of 2725 in October 2006.