Péter Lékó was born on 8 September 1979 in Szabadka. He has been living in Szeged since the age of one where he was awarded honorary citizenship in 2005 by the City Assembly. He has been playing chess since the age of seven. In 1994, he became grandmaster and U16 World Chess Champion breaking herewith Fischer's record. He first appeared in the Hungarian national team at the Moscow Chess Olympiad in 1994. As a frequently invited participant of the strongest tournaments he moved forward rapidly on the world rank list.

He won the tournaments in Copenhagen, Havana and Yopal in 1995. In 1997, he came third in Tilburg and Madrid, in 1998 finished second in Tilburg. In 1999, he won the Category 19 Dortmund event leaving Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, Michael Adams and Anatoly Karpov behind. He was the top-board player of the Hungarian Team in the European Championship in Baku where they won silver after 14 unsuccessful years. The start of the following year was also great for him. In Budapest he defeated Alexander Khalifman, the FIDE World Champion title-holder by 4,5-1,5 on a six-game match sponsored by WFG.

In January 2001, he played a twelve-game rapid match against Vladimir Kramnik. The World Champion was only able to win by a very tight 7-5. From that time on Peter has had a new coach. With Arshak Petrosian a new age has begun to our grandmaster. In the year 2002, he achieved several successes. He won the Dubai Grand Prix, came second in Essen and gained a very significant triumph by winning the World Championship Candidate's Tournament becoming Kramnik’s challenger officially, too. At the Olympiad in Bled he was the undefeated top-board player of the silver-medalist Hungarian team. .

Lékó started the year 2003 also superbly. The trade press was enthusiastic about his triumph in Linares. His combinative approach compelled general admiration. The different problems in connection with the World Championship affected his performance negatively, but from January 2004 he has been back on track again. In Wijk aan Zee he finished unbeaten behind Vishy Anand and came second tied with Adams. In Linares he has been quite long on the top but he was, unfortunately, deprived of the triumph by an unlucky loss to Kramnik and he finished second tied with Kasparov. In the Petrosian Memorial in Moscow, as a guest player of the Armenian national team, he showed the best individual performance

In the World Championship final in Brissago he managed to come back after a false start. After losing the first game he was able to equalize in the fifth, moreover he took the lead in the eighth by a superb win. Only a half point was needed to win the crown but the experienced opponent mustered all his strength, and in a dramatic fight won the last game and defended his title.

In January 2005, Peter Lékó won unbeaten in Wijk aan Zee so he can be proud of being able to win every remarkable chess tournament. He drew Adams by a great finish in Miskolc. After the eight exciting games the struggle ended up in 4-4. In Dortmund he was only eighth out of ten and in the FIDE World Championship in San Luis he had to settle for the fifth place.

The weaker start influenced his performance shown in the Corus 2006 super event. The first half oh the traditional Linares Tournament has exceptionally been organized in Morelia, Mexico as one of the most exclusive tournament of the year 2006 with a category of 20 and an ELO average of 2732. Lékó started with a brilliant double win and had another victory on the fourth day so he concluded the Mexican half unbeaten, with half point advantage.
Our Grand Master went on performing well in Linares, after 10 rounds he was on the lead by one point, however, with losing his last two games he finished only fourth. He did not play at the Olympiad in Turin and tried to focus on the Dortmund tournament where he, however, missed the first place again, this time he suffered a bitter defeat in the last round against Kramnik.

In the course of the rapid duel fought by Lékó Péter and the twelfth world champion of chess, Anatolij Karpov in the new shrine of chess, the National Theater of Miskolc, very interesting games could be observed by the competent audience Our Grand Master claimed a 4,5-3,5 victory with a triumph in the third game, the other parties were concluded with draws full of struggle.
Lékó concluded the year 2006 with a brilliant triumph in the Category 20 Tal Memorial organized in the Central Chess Club, Moscow. Our Grand Master finished with 5,5 points and won the event in dead-heat of 3.

Lékó made a good start in the year 2007, too. He won the rapid World Cup of sixteen players in Odessa - in the final he beat Vaszilij Ivancsuk of the Ukraine. In Linares he was not in top form at the super tournament that is why he could not use his chances. His following match took place in Miskolc, against the Russian world champion, Vladimir Kramnik. The games, which were also very interesting as far as the opening theory is concerned, were followed by an enormous crowd at the National Theatre in Miskolc. The fight of equal forces was won at the end by Kramnik 4,5-3,5.

Péter Lékó showed a superb performance at the Candidates' Tournament in Elista. Against the Turkish Mihail Gurevich four games were enough for him to get through. Our GM took an assertive triumph against Jevgeniy Barejev and could play in the world championship final. In Dortmund, at the traditional Sparkassen Chess-Meeting super tournament Lékó finished second in dead-heat.
In the world championship organized in Mexico City our GM came fourth with a performance of 50 %. His rapid duel against Ivanchuk in Munkács ended up in a 6-6 draw. He finished third in dead-heat at the 2nd Tal Memorial Tournament in Moscow. In the Corus 2008 event he shared the fifth place with Ivanchuk. He played a bit weaker in the Moriela-Linares event while showing an improving performance he came second together with Kramnik, Topalov and Carlsen at the Amber Tournament in Nice.

In framework of the series of rapid match-tournaments in Miskolc Péter Lékó played his fourth duel against the 17-year-old Norwegian pretender, Magnus Carlson where he underutilized his chances. In Jerevan, at the Karen Aszrjan Memorial Tournament he finished second. In his favorite city, Dortmund, he prevailed for the third time. Lékó was one of Kramnik’s second during the world championship final against Anand. At the Olympiad in Dresden he showed a brilliant individual performance as being the best top-board player. In the Grand Prix in Elista he finished fifth in dead-heat.

On the world ranking list of 1 April he is ranked 9th with 2751 ELO-points.

Péter Lékó's Triumphs:

1995 Copenhagen
1997 Havana, Yopal
1999 Dortmund
2002 Dubai (rapid)
2002 Dortmund tournament of world champion candidates
2003 Linares
2005 Wijk aan Zee
2006 Moscow
2007 Odessa (ACP Rapid World Cup)
2008 Dortmund

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