Person of day   -  19 SEPTEMBER 2023

EMIL SUTOVSKY

EMIL SUTOVSKY

Emil was born in Baku, which was then the capital of the Soviet Azerbaijan. He began playing chess in his native city and reached the level of candidate master. His family moved to Israel when he was 14. Soon after that Sutovsky won the Under-16 National Championship and became one of the most promising young Israeli chess players. A year and a half later he became an international master, at the age of 18 he made his final GM norm and at the age of 19 he became the Under-20 World Champion.

Emil Sutovsky was among the top finishers of more than 100 international tournaments. He is the 2001 European Champion. He also won the Aeroflot Open 2005, one of the strongest open tournaments in the history of chess. Emil Sutovsky is a member of the medal-winning Israeli team at the 2010 World Chess Olympiad, and he also won a gold medal on his board, having demonstrated the absolute best performance in the history of Chess Olympiads. He is considered to be one of the most creative and uncompromising modern grandmasters.

In 2007, Emil Sutovsky started as Gata Kamsky’s second and assisted his friend to win the FIDE World Cup; at a later stage he also took up coordinating both managerial and training tasks. Emil Sutovsky has been a member of the FIDE World Championships and Olympiads Committees since 2009. He is a gifted journalist and an author of numerous articles in various mass media. He has commented chess games online for multiple major international tournaments. He speaks five foreign languages. In December 2011 he was elected the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) President. 

In 2018, he entered the Arkady Dvorkovich team and made a great contribution to his victory in the FIDE Presidential elections. In November 2018, Sutovsky was appointed FIDE Director General and withdrew from the position of the ACP President. He is heading the FIDE Global Strategy Commission. 

Besides chess, Sutovsky is serious about classic music and classical singing (he has a beautiful bass-baritone voice). He plays the sports-oriented version of the trivia game “What? When? Where?” and is a founder and captain of the team of chess players who have successfully performed in the competitions in this game. 

He is married with two kids.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Emil Sutovsky initiated several chess events held by FIDE, which served to support chess players in the lockdown.