Peter Leko

For other people of the same name, see Leko (disambiguation).

Péter Lékó
Full name	Péter Lékó
Country	Hungary
Born	September 8, 1979 (1979-09-08) Subotica, Yugoslavia (now Serbia)
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2720 (January 2012) (No. 26 in the January 2012 FIDE World Rankings)
Peak rating	2763 (April 2005)

The native form of this personal name is Lékó Péter. This article uses the Western name order.

Péter Lékó (Serbian: Петер Леко) (born September 8, 1979 in Subotica, Yugoslavia) is a Hungarian chess player. He became a grandmaster in 1994 at the age of 14 years (a world record at the time). He was the challenger in the Classical World Chess Championship 2004 and tied Vladimir Kramnik 7-7, but Kramnik retained his title. His best world ranking was number four, first achieved in April 2003. Lékó is the son-in-law of Armenian grandmaster Arshak Petrosian.

World Championship results

In 2002 Leko won the Candidates Tournament to qualify as the challenger to Vladimir Kramnik for the Classical World Chess Championship 2004. (The World Chess Championship was split at the time, but most of the strongest players participated, the most notable exceptions being the world's top two, Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand). After several delays, the match was held from September 25 – October 18, 2004, in Brissago, Switzerland. Lékó led by a point with just one game left to play. Kramnik managed to win the last game, tying the match 7–7 (+2 −2 =10), which entitled him to remain the reigning "classical" world champion.

In October 2005, Lékó played for the FIDE World Chess Championship title in San Luis, Argentina, and was ranked fifth with 6.5 points. For more information, see FIDE World Chess Championship 2005.

In May–June 2007 Lékó played in the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2007. He won his matches against Mikhail Gurevich (+3−0=1) and Evgeny Bareev (+2−0=3), to qualify for the eight-player championship tournament. In the championship he finished fourth out of eight.

Chess960

In 2001, Lékó narrowly defeated Grandmaster Michael Adams in an eight game Fischer Random Chess (Chess960) match played as part of the Mainz Chess Classic.

Miskolc rapid chess matches

Every year since 2005, Peter Leko played a rapid chess match in the Hungarian city of Miskolc. Each year, he faced a different world-class opponent.

• In 2005, he drew Michael Adams 4–4
• In 2006, he beat Anatoly Karpov 4.5–3.5
• In 2007, he lost to Vladimir Kramnik 3.5–4.5
• In 2008, he lost to Magnus Carlsen 3–5
• In 2009, he lost to Viswanathan Anand 3–5
• In 2010, he lost to Boris Gelfand 3.5-4.5

Notable accomplishments

• 2008: 1st prize board one at 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden
• 2008: 1st Dortmund (Cat. 18)
• 2007: 1st ACP Rapid World Cup
• 2006: 1st Tal Memorial (Cat 20)
• 2005: 1st Corus chess tournament
• 2004: Drew Classical World Chess Championship 2004 (+2 −2 =10) versus Vladimir Kramnik
• 2004: 2nd Linares chess tournament (Cat 20)
• 2004: 2nd Wijk aan Zee (Cat 19)
• 2003: 2nd Monaco
• 2003: 1st Linares (Cat 20)
• 2002: 1st Candidates Tournament at Dortmund chess tournament

  Won the right to challenge Vladimir Kramnik for the World Chess Championship

• 2002: 2nd place at Essen (Cat.17)
• 2002: 3rd place at Monaco
• 2002: 1st Rapid Grand Prix at Dubai
• 2001: 1st Rapid Master Event in Nordhorn (Germany)
• 2001: 3rd Dortmund (Cat. 21)
• 2001: Defeated Michael Adams in a Fischer Random Chess match, Mainz, Germany
• 2000: Defeated Alexander Khalifman in match play, Budapest
• 1999: 1st Dortmund (Cat. 19)
• 1999: 1st the Rapid Grand Prix in Bordeaux (France)
• 1998: 2nd place at Tilburg (Cat. 18)
• 1996: 1st World Junior Chess Championship U16
• 1995: 3rd Dortmund (Cat. 17)

  At the age of 15

• 1994: Awarded International Grandmaster title

  At then-record age of 14 years old

• 1992: Awarded International Master title

Sample game

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

In this position after move 26 in the 2005 Corus tournament game between Viswanathan Anand and Péter Lékó, Lékó (Black) punishes Anand's erroneous 26th move with a strong combination.

On the way to winning the prestigious Corus chess tournament in 2005, Lékó defeated Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces. The moves were:

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5 6. Ndb5 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Bxf6 gxf6 10. Nd5 f5 11. c3 Bg7 12. exf5 Bxf5 13. Nc2 O-O 14. Nce3 Be6 15. Bd3 f5 16. O-O Ra7 17. a4 Ne7 18. Nxe7+ Rxe7 19. axb5 axb5 20. Bxb5 d5 21. Ra6 f4 22. Nc2 Bc8 23. Ra8 Qd6 24. Nb4 Bb7 25. Ra7 d4 26. Ba6? (Better is 26. Bc6 Bxc6 27. Rxe7 Qxe7 28. Nxc6 with approximate equality. See diagram) 26...Bxg2! 27. Bc4+ Kh8 28. Ra6 Qc5 29. Kxg2 f3+ 30. Kh1 Qxc4 31. Rc6 Qb5 32. Rd6 e4 33. Rxd4 Bxd4 34. Qxd4+ Qe5 35. Qxe5+ Rxe5 36. Nc2 Rb8 37. Ne3 Rc5 38. h3 Rxb2 39. c4 Rg5 40. Kh2 Kg8 41. h4 Rg6 42. Kh3 Kf7 43. Nf5 Rc2 44. Ne3 Rd2 45. c5 Ke6 46. c6 Rg8 47. c7 Rc8 48. Kg3 Rxc7 49. Kf4 Rd4 50. Ra1 Rf7+ 51. Kg3 Rd8 52. Ra6+ Ke5 53. Ng4+ Kd5 54. Nf6+ Rxf6 55. Rxf6 Ke5 56. Rh6 Rg8+ 57. Kh3 e3 0-1

External links

• Official homepage
• Peter Leko player profile at ChessGames.com
• Peter Leko at 365Chess.com
• Classical World Championship 2004
• Kramnik vs Leko 2004 Multimedia annotated game
• Interview ahead of the 2005 Championship
• My win has helped the game in Hungary

Achievements
Preceded by Judit Polgár	Youngest chess grandmaster ever 1994–1997	Succeeded by Étienne Bacrot