I don’t know about you, but it’s not every day that I get an email from a prominent Grandmaster. So, it came as a surprise when, out of the blue, I got a message from GM Timur Gareyev letting me know he was going to be in town and asking if we wanted to get together.
That’s a pretty easy one to answer.
As a bit of background, I first met Timur briefly at the 2019 U.S. Championship opening ceremony. I was in St. Louis to play in a tournament of my own and thought it would be a great experience to watch the top players in action.
We talked for a few minutes, and although the drawing of lots was fast approaching, Timur took the time to bring together five or six people and start a consultation game of Chess960 on the giant chess set in the lobby. He even played a few moves himself, and I’d like to think that he took his leave less due to the imminent drawing of lots, and more because I saw a chance to take a pawn he had left hanging on move 2!
The next time our paths crossed was at the Walter Browne Memorial blitz after the National Open in Las Vegas. He complimented me on my performance in the main and quickly offered to play a few casual blitz games. As it happened, we were later paired together in the final round of the tournament as well.
Though I can’t recall the games in full, the result was not in doubt, as he won the first game in a slow Philidor and subsequently humiliated me by playing 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. Rg1 and winning easily as white.
And then a few months later, I got his email.
He was going to be in San Antonio doing a simul, giving some lectures and planned to spend a couple of days in Austin. He was planning to do some skydiving, too … because why not? (He’s a highly experienced skydiver – see the November 2018 cover of Chess Life magazine.)
While I couldn’t attend the lectures, we set up a time to meet in Austin with some other chess players for a few casual games. For roughly two hours Timur, a few mutual friends, and I played, discussed, and analyzed. Afterwards I had the chance to talk with him for a while longer about his plans for the year ahead and other areas of interest.
To be sure, Timur has a well-deserved and widely known reputation as one of the most eccentric and spirited Grandmasters on the chess circuit, both on and off the chessboard. He has an adventurous personality that seems to come through in everything he does. He actively strives to play creative, unique chess, particularly in the opening (remarkably, without the use of engines!) but also in other stages of the game, too. From his inventive play and blindfold chess exploits to his personal style and unrestrained enthusiasm, he is truly one-of-a-kind.
Timur was born in 1988 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and was fortunate to have gentle encouragement and a good atmosphere from chess-playing relatives to pick up the game early on. He also had the good fortune to meet his first coach Georgy Borisenko, a well-known expert of opening theory and a correspondence Grandmaster. They hit it off, and as Timur related to me, “[Borisenko] contributed tremendously, and I’m grateful that I had such a chance in my life.”
Timur became a Grandmaster in 2004, at the fairly young age of 16. One of his more significant victories came in 2008, when he tied for first in the Uzbekistani Chess Championship. Timur never seems to have been too interested in collecting titles, preferring to play for the games’ sake.
Timur officially made the U.S. his home soon after graduating from the University of Texas at Brownsville in 2011. He had a good first outing in the 2013 U.S. Championship and has since remained a force to be reckoned with in U.S. Open tournaments, notably winning the 2018 U.S. Open almost out of nowhere.
During the pandemic, Timur (like many of us) had a somewhat difficult time coping with the sudden lack of live chess. He did manage to keep in practice by playing in online events and “collaborating with a number of strong players on sort of improving over the board game.” With tournaments opening back up, he says that this will be his last year of playing competitively and working seriously to improve his game, and that he has been meaning to go for it for some time now.
While he won’t truly retire from a career in chess, Timur says that after this year he won’t “prioritize chess performance over other things in my life.” Instead, he plans to focus more on traveling the world and promoting chess through lectures and simuls. Timur recently went to Italy on such a mission. He also hinted that at some point in the future he may try to break the blindfold simultaneous World Record he set in 2016.
Timur’s year in chess is off to a good start: he posted good results in the FIDE World Cup, where he made it to the third round and eliminated strong GM Dmitry Jakovenko. Subsequently, he started the World Rapid Championship with an impressive 4/5. Later on, though still on a decent 6/8, he ran into a deadly trio of Russian GMs Nepomniachtchi, Alekseenko and Sarana who ended his hopes for a higher final placement. While blitz is an entirely different type of chess, it is also worthy of note that he started the World Blitz Championship with a win against none other than World Number 2 (and blitz phenom) Alireza Firouzja!
Look for him to play in the upcoming Continental Championships in San Salvador.
Here are a few of Timur’s better efforts from recent events:
While chess is certainly Timur’s main focus, he likes to combine it with other fun activities whenever possible. In addition to skydiving, Timur is also an avid hiker. As he relates, “a few months prior [to the aforementioned World Cup], I hiked Kilimanjaro, combining chess visits to east Africa, and also going up the mountain.”
No matter where Timur’s life might lead him, there’s no question that he’s a true ambassador of the game as well as a person with a unique talent for bringing people together around chess. I feel very lucky to have experienced that generosity of spirit firsthand.
And Timur, if you’re reading this, feel free to email any time you’re passing through!
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