Person of day   -  1 AUGUST 2023

LIVIU-DIETER NISIPEANU

LIVIU-DIETER NISIPEANU

Liviu-Dieter was born in Brasov, a Romanian city which carried Stalin’s name shortly before the birth of the future grandmaster. Nisipeanu became a bronze medallist at the European U19 championship when he was 15- he was overtaken by the more experienced Konstantin Sakaev and Jan Votava. At the Old World championship for U21s, Nisipeanu came second, losing to Andrey Shariyazdanov. 

The young chess player soon began to fight for the Romanian championship, which he won in 1996 and retained the title for many years to come. A year after his spectacular victory at the Ciocâltea Memorial, Nisipeanu became a grandmaster. Liviu-Dieter’s next ascent came soon after- in 1998, he split 1stplace at the European zonal tournament, and at the FIDE knockout world championship in Las Vegas, he was one of the newsmakers. Nisipeanu consecutively defeated recognised favourites such as Zurab Amzaiparishvili, Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexei Shirov, before losing to the eventual winner, Alexander Khalifman, in the semi-final. 

The Romanian grandmaster continued to perform successfully at competitions and his rating rose to 2707 after victory at the 2005 European championship. In those years, Liviu-Dieter was a wanted guest at super tournaments, where he defeated Shahkriyar Mamedyarov, Boris Gelfand, Alexander Grischuk, Veselin Topalov, Michael Adams, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Ruslan Ponomariov and other leading chess players. In 2006, he player against Veselin for the World Super Cup (where the FIDE world champion played against the European champion), but he lost 1:3. Throughout his career, Nisipeanu was distinguished by a colourful, aggressive playing style. He often said that he liked to think of himself as heir to Mikhail Tal.

In 2010, the Romanian team did not make it to the Olympiad due to financial problems, which led to a conflict between the chess federation and the country’s leading chess player- Nisipeanu missed the European championship in Porto Carras and the 2012 Olympiad. At this difficult moment, Liviu-Dieter was invited to play for the German team, since his mother was born in Germany and he had close contacts with German chess players because he often competed at German tournaments. 

From the 2014 Olympiad onwards, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu plays for the team of his new homeland.