Peter Leko: The Amazing Hungarian Chess Grandmaster

Born at the administrative city of Subotica in Serbia, Peter Leko is certainly one of the top ranked chess players in recent years. This Hungarian chess grandmaster has his own share of impressive victories that gave him an overall 2755 Elo rating. This key stat is good for the top spot in Hungary and fifth best worldwide.

During his early years, Leko has already displayed a lot of potential in playing chess. His superior brilliance in the game cannot be taken for granted. By the age of 14, he has already earned the prestigious grandmaster title. After that enormous achievement, there seems to be no looking back for him. His transiently brilliant playing styles and strategies brought him to greater heights in the next few years.

In an effort to unify the world chess championship, his triumph at the Dortmund 2002 tournament gave him the right to face Russian chess grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik in a unification chess title bout. Held at the beautiful municipality of Brissago in Switzerland, this excellent chess showdown happened in the middle parts of 2004.

The victor of this highly celebrated event would have to face the winner of the chess match between Garry Kasparov and the FIDE champion. The ultimate winner will be considered the undisputed world chess titlist. After weeks of grueling chess battles, Leko was tied with the defending champion Kramnik. However, the world chess championship title stayed with Kramnik by virtue of a tie.

In 2001, Leko participated in the Mainz Chess Classic in Germany. His performance was indeed notable as he almost bested British chess grandmaster Michael Adams before losing the Fischer Random Chess event. Although losing this eight game series, observers clearly noticed Leko's supreme chess skills and strategies.

The FIDE World Chess Championship in 2005 was another monumental milestone for the Hungarian chess grandmaster. After finishing with a respectable 6.5 points, Leko found himself having the fifth overall spot of this international chess tournament. Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, Viswanathan Anand of India, and Peter Svidler of Russia were the few players who emerged on top of Leko in this competition. Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan, Michael Adams of England, and Judit Polgar of Hungary all fell short of Leko's performance.

In 2007, Leko seems to have set bigger goals in mind. He participated in the Candidates Tournament in the second quarter of the year to have another crack at the prestigious world chess championship. Evgeny Bareev and Mikhail Gurevich were among the players that he trashed in the qualifying tournament. During the finals, Leko finished a very solid fourth overall. Boris Gelfand of Israel, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, and Viswanathan Anand of India were the only players who finished much better than him.