Anish Giri is the Netherlands’ strongest active player and has been a fixture in the world top-fifteen since 2012. Born in Saint Petersburg to a Nepalese father and Russian mother, he moved with his family to the Netherlands at age fourteen and represents that country since 2009.
He earned the Grandmaster title in 2009 at fourteen, then the youngest GM in the world. He qualified for the 2016 Candidates Tournament in Moscow, where he famously drew all fourteen of his games — a result that defined his early-career reputation for solidity to the point of caricature. He has since proved capable of decisive results: he won the 2017 Reykjavik Open, Tata Steel 2023 in tiebreaks, and several elite invitationals.
His chess style is theoretical and resilient. He prepares deeply, plays the sharp side of the Catalan and Najdorf with equal facility, and has a documented record of holding worse positions to draws against the strongest players in the world. His rating peaked at 2798 in 2024, the second-highest ever for a Dutch player after Max Euwe.
Off the board he is one of the most-followed elite players on social media, known for self-deprecating humour and frequent commentary on professional chess. He is married to Sopiko Guramishvili, herself a Georgian international master and chess journalist.