GM Illya Nyzhnyk

Illya Nyzhnyk is a Ukrainian grandmaster and one of the best players in his country. He rose to the top of the chess world at a young age, winning the U10 Ukrainian Youth Championship in both 2005 and 2006. He also won the U12 championship in 2006 and the U16 championship in 2008.

In 2007, Nyzhnyk drew worldwide attention after winning Group B of the Moscow Open, scoring 8.5/9 with a 2633 performance against a field of 324 strong players before he was even an international master. A year later, Nyzhnyk won the Nabokov Memorial in 2008 as well as the U16 European Championship. He became an international master in 2009 and a grandmaster in 2011, and he reached his peak FIDE rating of 2679 in 2020.