The 32-year-old super-grandmaster from St Petersburg is one of the best known and best liked players on the circuit. He became a grandmaster in 1994 and went on to win no fewer than four Russian championships between 1994 and 2003. Just recently he made it a record five national titles when he won the Russian Super-Final (after a play-off) in October 2008. He has scaled the heights of chess without quite making it to world champion - he finished 2nd= in the 2005 FIDE World Championship tournament in Argentina, level with current champion Vishy Anand and behind only Veselin Topalov. He spent a term at Oakham School in England when he was a teenager and came away a confirmed anglophile.

Peter Svidler (right, aged 14) playing Mickey Adams at Oakham School in 1990

Peter has a perfect command of written and spoken English and is extremely knowledgeable about cricket. Look out for the name 'Tendulkar' on the Internet Chess Club (his handle). He is also a big Bob Dylan fan. He will be making his Gibraltar debut in 2009.
 

Hikaru Nakamura

 

USA

2704g

Hikaru will be 21 by the time of the 2009 Gibtelecom Masters. In 2003 he broke Bobby Fischer’s long-standing record for being the youngest American to become a grandmaster, doing so aged only 15 years and 79 days old. Born in Osaka to a Japanese father and American mother, Hikaru has lived in the USA since the age of two, where he is coached by his Sri Lankan step-father FM Sunil Weeramantry. He won the 2004/5 US Championship and in 2006 helped his country to win bronze at the Olympiad, playing board three below Kamsky and Onischuk. He finished second equal in the 2007 Gibtelecom Masters. Visit his website. 2008 result: TOURNAMENT WINNER. 8/10, 1st= and won play-off match vs Bu Xiangzhi. Prize money won: £12,000. Hikaru then treated us to a wonderful speech at the prizegiving, proving that he is a gracious and humorous young man.
    Since his 2008 Gibraltar success, Hikaru has had another notable victory - first place at the Cap D'Agde Rapidplay knock-out tournament in France where he beat Karpov in the semi-final and Ivanchuk in the final. With Hikaru's prodigious tie-break/rapidplay talents, and Peter Svidler (who won the Russian in a rapidplay tie-break), Gibraltar fans might actually be looking forward to a tie for first place - it could mean the ultimate face-off between the tie-break kings of Russia and the USA!
 

Viktor Bologan

 

MDA

2682g

Born in Moldova in 1971, Viorel Bologan (or Viktor as he is shown officially by FIDE) is a formidable player with some superb results in individual competitions. In 1993 he won the Las Palmas tournament with 8½/9, but this and a number of other excellent results did not secure his entry to super-tournaments until 2003. He took the chance well, finishing a comfortable first ahead of world champion Kramnik, Anand, Radjabov and Leko in Dortmund. Still does not receive as many invitations to the leading tournaments as he should, but he remains a most formidable adversary who always strives for maximum points. 2008 result: 7½/10, 3rd=. Prize money won: £1,857.
 

Bartosz Socko

 

POL

2631g

Born 10 xi 1978 in Piaseczno in central Poland. Won the Polish under 16 championship in 1994 and the under 18 in 1995. Awarded his GM title in 1999, since when he has improved steadily to July 2007 when he became the highest ranking player in Poland for the first time, overtaking Michal Krasenkow. One of his best results to date was winning the 2006 Biel Open. Gave a master class at 2008 Gibtelecom Masters which was very well received. 2008 result: 6½/10.
 

Varuzhan Akobian

 

USA

2606g

Not to be confused with 2007 Gibtelecom Masters winner Vladimir Akopian, though they are both Armenians by birth. ‘Var’, born in Yerevan, will be 25 by the time of the 2009 Gibtelecom Masters, and he has been registered as a US player since 2002. He arrived in the USA in 2001 as a 17-year-old IM and became a GM in 2003. He shared first in the 2002 World Open and won it outright in 2004 and again in 2007. As of June 2007 he is the top-rated player in the state of California. He has been over 2600 a couple of times with some steady results in 2005. In July 2007 he played in the 4th (biennial) Pan-American Continental Championship in Santiago de Cali in Colombia and finished in a five-way tie for first. Though he did not take the title on tie-break, it was good enough to qualify him for the December 2007 FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. The Siberian cold didn’t worry him because in childhood he once lived in Mongolia. He has his own website – http://www.akobian.com/. 2008 result: 7/10, 10th=.
 

The next time someone tries to tell you that chessplayers are 'geeks' or 'nerds', tell them about Simen Agdestein, chess grandmaster - and international footballer. Simen, born in 1967, has won the Norwegian chess championship no fewer than seven times, becoming an IM at 16 and a grandmaster at 18. He finished second at the 1986 World Junior Championship (ahead of the current world champion Vishy Anand) and has been rated above 2600. He won an Olympiad individual gold in 1982, aged 15. He played soccer for Lyn Oslo and made several appearances for Norway at a time when they getting good. These days he coaches chess and soccer at an academy in Norway and takes large groups of young chessplayers to various events - as at the 2008 Gibraltar Masters (where he scored 5½/10). When he took a large party of young Norwegians to the very strong 2003 Monarch Assurance event, he went on to win the competition. You may have heard of one of Simen's most promising pupils - Magnus Carlsen...
   ...  oh, and I should have mentioned that Simen appeared in Norwegian TV's version of the popular BBC TV show Strictly Come Dancing. He sent me the following photo of himself with the enigmatic comment 'Hmmm...' (just that: nothing more)...

Sandipan - Tiviakov: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6 4 g3 Bb7 5 Bg2 Be7 6 0-0 0-0 7 d5 exd5 8 Nh4 c6 9 cxd5 Nxd5 10 Nf5 Nc7 11 e4 d5 12 Nc3 Bf6 13 exd5 cxd5 14 Bf4 Nba6 15 Re1 Qd7 16 Bh3 Ne6 17 Ne4 Bxb2 18 Rb1 Bc8 19 Ng5 Bf6 20 Qh5 Bxg5 21 Bxg5 Re8 22 Bf6 gxf6 23 Qh6 Nac5 24 Rbd1 Qb7 25 Rd4 Ne4 26 Rexe4 dxe4 27 Qxf6 Qc7 28 Nh6+ Kf8 29 Qh8+ Ke7 30 Nf5 mate. Is board four for India in the 2008 Dresden Olympiad.
 

Mohamad Al Modiahki

 

QAT

2559g

Mohamad is probably better known as the husband of former women’s world champion Zhu Chen, but that is rather unfair because he is a grandmaster in his own right with a higher rating than Zhu. Success at the 2001 Tehran zonal took him to the world championship where he lost to Judit Polgar in the first round. His results greatly improved in 2003 and he soon completed his qualification for the grandmaster title. Following his 6½/9 at Gibraltar 2007, in the summer of 2007 he scored a creditable 7½/11 in the Biel Open.
 

Pia Cramling

 

SWE

2550g

As at October 2008, Pia Cramling is ranked at number five woman player in the world and she has rarely been out of the top ten women players in the past 20 years. She was a frequent competitor at the Lloyds Bank Masters tournament in London and qualified for the full IM title in 1983 aged 20. Shortly after, at Biel 1984, she beat Viktor Korchnoi, then almost at the height of his powers. She went on to qualify for the full GM title in 1992. Born in Stockholm, she married Juan Manuel Bellón some years ago and now lives in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol with him and their daughter Ana. She was European Women’s Champion in 2003 and won the 2007 MonRoi Women’s Grand Prix in Montreal. in late 2008 she reached the semi-finals of the women's world championship only to be eliminated by the eventual winner Alexandra Kosteniuk. 2008 Gibtelecom result: 6/10, 37th=.
 

Antoaneta Stefanova

 

BUL

2548g

Antoaneta Stefanova (known to her friends as 'Eti') is one of the world’s best known and strongest women players, with a peak rating of 2560 which has been bettered only by a handful of women players. Born in 1979, she won 1989 World Girls' Under-10 Championship in 1989. In 2002 she won the European Women's Championship, became a full grandmaster in 2003 and won the women’s world championship in Kalmykia in 2004. Like Judit Polgar and Pia Cramling, she has played most of her chess against top male players, representing Bulgarian in the open section of the Olympiad. In 2008 she won the North Urals Cup ahead of women's world champion Xu Yuhua, 2622-rated Humpy Koneru and other leading women players. Later in 2008 she reached the quarter-final of the women's world championship where she lost to Pia Cramling. Eti has played four times at the Gibtelecom Masters. In 2004 she scored 5½/10. In 2006 she scored 6½/10, sharing the main women's prize with Zhu Chen and Natalia Zhukova. In 2007 she scored 6/9, sharing the main women's prize with Jovanka Houska. In 2008 she started the tournament with 4/4, including wins against Mikhail Gurevich, Tigran Petrosian and Varuzhan Akobian. She finished with 6½/10, once again sharing the main women's prize (this time with Dronavalli Harika, Viktorija Cmilyte and Ketevan Arakhamia).
 

Born in 1976, Gabriel is one of a strong generation of Spanish grandmasters. Such is the strength in depth of Spanish chess that Gabriel has not yet broken through to the national team, but he made a good score for the Spanish 'B' team at the 2001 European Team Championship. He scored 6/9 at the 2003 Monarch Assurance Isle of Man International without drawing any games. He played in the 2004 and 2005 Gibtelecom Masters tournaments, scoring 6½/10 and 6/10.

Zhu Chen

 

QAT

2496g

Women’s world champion in 2001, Zhu Chen struck a blow for women when she eliminated her opposite number, the FIDE (open) world champion, Ruslan Ponomariov, in the first round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Dubai in 2002. World Girls Under-20 Champion in 1994 and 1996. Now plays under the Qatari flag alongside her husband Mohamad Al Modiahki. Joint winner of the North Urals Cup in Krasnoturinsk ahead of a very strong women’s field in the summer of 2007. 2008 result: 5½/10, 56th=.
 

Elisabeth Pähtz

 

GER

2471m

Elli is almost certainly the best German woman player ever but she had a head start: her father Thomas is a chess grandmaster. She won the German Under-11 Championship when she was only 9. At 14, she won the German women’s championship, in 2002 she became world under-18 girls champion and two years later the world under-20 girls champion. She will be 24 by the time of the 2009 Gibtelecom Masters. Not much is allowed to stand between Elli and her beloved chess. In 2002 she waded through floods caused by the overflowing River Elbe to travel from Dresden to Mainz for a match with world championship finalist Alexandra Kosteniuk. Elli is currently a soldier in the German army but her ambition is to become a schoolteacher. 2008 result: 6/10, 37th=.
 

Juan Manuel Bellón

 

ESP

2440g

The Valencia-born grandmaster won the Spanish championship when he was only 19 in 1969 (and has won it again four more times). He was awarded the grandmaster title in 1979. He has long been known for his original and creative play. One of the more remarkable things about Juan Manuel is that he is said not to have offered a draw since 1978! Read more on the subject here. 57 years old, he is married to Pia Cramling. 2008 result: 6½/10, 21st=.
 

Monika Socko

 

POL

2434m

Monika has twice won the Polish women’s championship, once under her maiden name of Bobrowska in 1995 and again in 2004. Like her husband, she has steadily improved over the past few years and she has advanced up the ranks of the world's top women players. Then, in September 2007, she had probably her best tournament result to date, winning the 2nd Women's International in Baku, Azerbaijan, ahead of Antoaneta Stefanova, Leia Javakhishvili, Pia Cramling, Katerina Lahno, Viktorija Cmilyte and others. In doing so she recorded a full GM norm. Bartosz and Monika Socko have three children. 2008 result: 6/10, 37th=.
 

Jovanka Houska

 

ENG

2399m

Jovanka is the most active woman player in Britain these days and she has been making steady improvement as a player. Her elder brother is also an IM and her drive and determination to succeed owe a lot to sibling rivalry. She made her first WGM norm at the 1999 British Championship when she was still a teenager, and then scored a big success in 2000, winning the European Girls Under-20 title with 9/11 to secure the WGM title. She did a law degree but still found time for chess appearing in the 1998 and 2000 Olympiads and winning the 2001 Commonwealth Women’s Championship. In 2005 she became only the third British woman player to gain the full IM title. She likes playing in Gibraltar and shared the women’s first prize in 2007 against some very strong opposition including two world champions. In 2008 she won the British Women's Championship for the first time and returned to Liverpool a few weeks later to share the leading women's prize in the European Union Championship. Check her website at http://www.jovanka.co.uk/mambo/