Jaan Ehlvest

Jaan Ehlvest
Full name	Jaan Ehlvest
Country	United States
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2601 (No. 94 on the July 2007 FIDE ratings list)
Peak rating	2660 (January 1996)

Jaan Ehlvest (born 14 October 1962 at Tallinn in Estonia) is a chess player. He was made a Grandmaster in 1987 and was Estonian sportsman of the year in 1987 and 1989.

On the April 2005 FIDE list, Ehlvest had an Elo rating of 2614, placing him just outside the world's top one hundred and making him Estonia's number one, but he has been ranked in the world top twenty.

Biography

Ehlvest's tournament victories include the 1983 European Junior Championship, the 1986 Estonian Championship, the 1994 New York Open, and the 2003 World Open. When SK Rockaden won the 2001 Swedish championship they fielded Ehlvest.

Ehlvest studied psychology at Tartu State University. In 2004, Ehlvest published his autobiography, The Story of a Chess Player. He often plays in tournaments in the U.S.

In March 2007, Ehlvest accepted an invitation to play an unusual 8-game match against the chess program Rybka, one of the strongest chess programs in existence. He was playing black in all games, but was given a pawn odds (Rybka was playing each game a pawn down; different white pawn was removed in each game). He lost the match 2.5:5.5 (+1-4=3). In a following rematch, the pawn odds were removed, Ehlvest was given white every game, twice the time on the clock, and significant computational handicaps were placed on the machine. Ehlvest lost decisively 4.5-1.5.

Further reading

• Ehlvest, Jaan (2004). The Story of a Chess Player. Arbiter Publishing. ISBN 0-9763891-0-X.

External links

• Jaan Ehlvest's official website contains many of his annotated games and articles
• Jaan Ehlvest rating card at FIDE
• Jaan Ehlvest player profile and games at Chessgames.com