Peter Leko (; born September 8, 1979) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster and commentator. He became the world's youngest grandmaster in 1994. He narrowly missed winning the Classical World Chess Championship 2004: the match was drawn 7–7 and so Vladimir Kramnik retained the title. He also came fifth in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 and fourth in the World Chess Championship 2007.
Leko has achieved victories in many major chess tournaments, including the annual tournaments at Dortmund, Linares, Wijk aan Zee and the Tal Memorial in Moscow. He won two team silver medals and an individual gold medal representing Hungary at eight Chess Olympiads as well as team bronze and silver and an individual silver medal at three European Team Championships.
Leko has been ranked as high as fourth in the FIDE world rankings, which he first achieved in April 2003.FIDE World Rankings April 2003 FIDE Accessed 6 September 2014
Early years Peter Leko was born into an ethnic Hungarian family in the city of Subotica, Yugoslavia, but moved to Szeged when he was one year old. He was taught chess by his father shortly before he turned seven and took part in tournaments from the age of nine.The Young Lions , Yosef Vatnikov. Accessed 23 August 2014 His first coach Tibor Károlyi began work with him in 1989, ending three months before Leko became a grandmaster. They later reunited in 1998 until the end of 2000."I'm ready to work towards my goals step by step" Reocities.com Accessed 23 August 2014 Leko also worked with IM Gaspar Mathe when he was ten years old.
As a junior, Leko competed in several age categories in the World Youth Chess Championship, winning bronze in the U10 in 1989, bronze in the U12 in 1990, fourth place in the U14 in 1992, silver in the U14 in 1993 and gold in the U16 in 1994.
Leko earned the International Master title in 1992. In 1994, he became a Grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 4 months and 22 days, at the time the youngest to have done so, breaking the record previously held by Judit Polgár.Prodigies and mini-grandmasters Chessbase Accessed 23 August 2014 His norms came at a First Saturday tournament in Budapest and Leon (sharing third place with Anatoly Karpov and Veselin Topalov) in 1993, and shared third place at Hoogovens in 1994.
Rising to the top Leko showed his class in winning at Copenhagen in 1995 with 8 points out of 11 games. Soon after, Leko competed at Dortmund where he shared third place (5 points out of 9 games) with Vasyl Ivanchuk,Dortmund 1995 Teleschach.de Accessed 24 August 2014 backing up his new world ranking, placing him 55th with 2605 Elo. At Belgrade, a last round loss to Ivanchuk pushed him down to eighth place. He slipped to last place in Dortmund in 1996 but recovered with fourth place in Vienna (5/9). In 1997, Leko won in Cienfuegos (5/9) and Yopal (6½/9) and took fourth place at the traditional Tilburg chess tournament (7/11) establishing him as a rising star, climbing to 16th in the world rankings in the January 1998 list.
Leko continued his rise up the rankings with second place (7/11) behind Viswanathan Anand at Tilburg in 1998, fourth place (5/9) in Dortmund and fourth place (6½/14) at Linares in early 1999. Leko's run of form culminated in achieving his first major tournament win (5/7) at Dortmund, half a point ahead of Vladimir Kramnik. It was at this tournament that he met his future wife, Sofia.
He made his first entry into World Championship tournaments at the FIDE World Chess Championship 1999 held in Las Vegas, defeating Christian Bauer 1½–½ but losing to eventual quarter-finalist Sergei Movsesian after rapid tiebreaks 2½–1½. In January 2000, Leko faced the winner, FIDE World Champion Alexander Khalifman in a six-game match held in Budapest, which he won 4½–1½.
Leko followed up his victory by sharing second place (8/13) with Kramnik and Anand at Corus behind a dominant Garry Kasparov, sharing last place (4½/10) at Linares and sharing second place (5/8) with Kramnik at Dortmund. At the FIDE World Chess Championship 2000 held in New Delhi (rounds 1–6) and Tehran (final), Leko was knocked out in the third round by Khalifman (4½–3½) after "sudden death" tiebreaks.
In 2001, Leko posted solid results in Corus (6½/13), Linares (4½/10), third place in Dortmund (5½/10) and winning an eight-game Chess 960 (Fischer Random Chess) match against Michael Adams at Mainz.Chess Classic Mainz 2001:Fischer Random Chess ChessTigers.org Accessed 25 August 2014 The year was rounded off with an early exit in the second round of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2002, held in Moscow, at the hands of Ashot Anastasian (2½–1½) after rapid tiebreaks.
Leko started 2002 solidly with a sixth-place finish (7/13) at Corus, sharing third place (4½/9) in the NAO Masters held in Cannes and second place (7/9) at Essen behind Vadim Zvjaginsev.
Classical World Championship Challenger Under the terms of the Prague Agreement signed in May 2002, "The Dortmund winner will play the Classical World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik and the present FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov will play Garry Kasparov, the current World's number one rated player".Peace in our time Chessbase Accessed 14 September 2014
The Dortmund Chess Meeting was held in June 2002 with the format a two-stage event, with two-four player groups played as double round robins, with the two top players from each group progressing to a knockout stage determining the winner.Dortmund hosts world championship qualifier Chessbase Accessed 29 August 2014
Leko qualified comfortably from the B Group in second place to Evgeny Bareev and faced Alexei Shirov in a four-game match. This ended early with the score 2½–½ in Leko's favour. In the final of the Tournament Leko met Veselin Topalov, who had been in good form in the run up to the tournament but had a draining match which had gone to tiebreaks against Bareev in the semi-finals. The match was won by Leko 2½–1½, ensuring he became the official challenger to Vladimir Kramnik for the Classical World Chess Championship 2004.Leko is Kramnik's challenger Sportstar Accessed 30 August 2014
His Candidates triumph was followed up by leading the Hungarian team on board one to team silver in the 35th Chess Olympiad with an unbeaten run, along with sharing first (7/12) at Linares in early 2003 with Kramnik, half a point ahead of Anand and Kasparov, notably ending a ten super-tournament winning streak by Kasparov.Kramnik-Leko Anand Kasparov Draw, Leko Takes Title Chessbase Accessed 30 August 2014 This was shortly followed up by second place at the 12th Amber Melody tournament (Blind 6/11, Rapid 7½/11) a point behind Anand,Anand wins the 12th Amber tournament Chessbase Accessed 30 August 2014Amber 2003 Chess.GR Accessed 30 August 2014 and a solid result (5/9) in Budapest.Nigel Short, new Hungarian champion? Chessbase Accessed 30 August 2014 At Dortmund, Leko disappointed with 4/10, considered to be due to the difficulties regarding the organising of the match with Kramnik.
2004 started brightly for Leko with shared second place (8/13) with Adams in Corus, half a point behind Anand and sharing second place (6½/12) with Kasparov in Linares, half a point behind Kramnik. He competed as part of an Armenia vs Rest of the World match, scoring 4/6 and finished in fourth place in Dortmund (held in the same format as the Candidates Tournament in 2002 but with play-offs for final positions).Dortmund concludes:Vishy Anand Victorious Chessbase Accessed 30 August 2014
Classical World Championship Match
After several delays due to the collapse of the Einstein Group, who were originally to have organised the match,So what's going to happen now? Chessbase Accessed 6 September 2014Kramnik vs Leko in jeopardy Chessbase Accessed 6 September 2014Einstein goes into administration Chessbase Accessed 6 September 2014Kramnik on the world chess situation Chessbase Accessed 6 September 2014 Leko contested the Classical World Chess Championship 2004 held from September 25 to October 18, 2004, in Brissago, Switzerland. Leko was helped by Vladimir Akopian, Arshak Petrosian and Vladislav Tkachiev.Classical World Championship 2004 Chess Siberia Accessed 31 August 2014
In a match containing six games agreed as drawn before 25 moves, Leko lost the first game in dramatic fashion despite placing Kramnik's Petroff Defence under pressure after making a blunder in an unbalanced endgame where his Queen was slowly outmanoeuvred by Kramnik's pair of Rooks.Kramnik wins first game with black Chessbase Accessed 6 September 2014 Then followed two short draws and a hard-fought draw in Game 4 where Leko over-pressed with Black in a Ruy Lopez opening but Kramnik failed to take advantage of an extra pawn in the rook endgame.Dannemann: a bungy jump in Brissago Chessbase Accessed 15 September 2014
Leko equalised the match score in Game 5 after switching his White opening from 1.e4 to 1.d4 playing a Queen's Gambit Declined line that Kramnik was familiar with. Kramnik allowed himself to enter a Rook and Bishop endgame a pawn down but with the likely result a draw. Leko used his pawns to press through the centre. Kramnik believed he could construct a fortress and save a draw but Leko managed to find a way to convert the win.Leko catches up Chessbase Accessed 6 September 2014Leko Finally Breaks Through With an Opening Surprise New York Times (Robert Byrne) Published 10 October 2004 In game six, a short draw was agreed after Kramnik declined a pawn sacrifice. In game seven, Leko was surprised by an unusual move order in the opening and simplified the position leading to a draw soon after, closing out the first half of the match with the score 3½–3½.
In Game 8, Leko scored an important win, taking the match lead for the first time. For the first time Kramnik allowed Leko to play the aggressive Marshall Attack variation of the Ruy Lopez. Kramnik played a queen sacrifice and continuation which his team had believed via computer analysis to be fine for him. However, Leko exploited a hole in the preparation and by sacrificing material created a decisive advantage.Game 8: Leko wins to take the lead Chessbase Accessed 6 September 2014Leko springs a surprise on Kramnik the Telegraph (Malcolm Pein) Published 8 October 2004
Between two short draws in Game 9 and 11, notable for Kramnik's change of opening with Black to Queen's Indian Defence, Game 10 saw Leko eventually finding a successful defence to Kramnik's opening advantage. That was enough to persuade Leko to change his opening with Black to the Caro-Kann for Game 12. Kramnik pressed but Leko found enough counterplay to repel him and secure a draw.
In the penultimate Game 13, in search of a win, Kramnik switched opening again with Black to the dynamic Benoni Defence and launched a kingside attack in the middlegame while Leko's pieces were on the queenside. Leko managed to liquidate the position to a tense Rook and pawn endgame where Leko's precise defence nullified Kramnik's advantage, leading to a draw.
In a dramatic final game, with Leko needing only a draw to secure the Championship, Kramnik chose the Advance variation against Leko's Caro-Kann and placed immediate pressure on Leko using a line played during the Tal–Botvinnik World Championship Match of 1961. Leko's plan to exchange off White's pieces and form a fortress did not work and Kramnik was able to break through the Black position. Leko resigned when checkmate was threatened. Under the rules of the match, with the score tied 7–7, Kramnik retained his title as Classical World Champion and would move on to an eventual reunification match against Veselin Topalov in 2006.
Career after Brissago