Russian Peter (Pyotr) Svidler was born on 17 June 1976 in Leningrad. His peak World Ranking is 4th (January 2004). His current rating is 2762 (April 2016). He learnt to play chess at the age of six and became grandmaster at the age of eighteen in 1994.

In the 2005 FIDE World Chess Championship in San Luis he placed shared second with Anand winning 8 ½ out of 14 games, finishing only by ½ point behind winner Topalov. It meant that he qualified for the finals of the 2007 World Championship where he placed fifth out of eight competitors (6 ½ points out of 14).

He participated in ten Chess Olympiads between 1994 and 2014 representing Russia. The Russian team won gold medal in all Olympiads from 1994 to 2002, five times altogether. In 2004 and 2010 they won team silver. Svidler won individual bronze medal in 1996.

Interesting facts:

Svidler is a cricket fan, and his pseudonym on the Internet Chess Club server is Tendulkar after the famous Indian cricket player.

He loves Bob Dylan’s music.

He is a devoted advocate of the Fischer Random Chess (Chess960). He won Chess960 World Champion title in 2003. He defended this title successfully two times in 2004 against Levon Aronian and in 2005 against Zoltán Almási. In 2006 Aronian won the title.