The Road To Nigeria’s First Grand Master:

GM Ivan Sokolov is a well-known Dutch Grandmaster, chess author and coach, originally from Yugoslavia. He attained the title of Youngest Grandmaster in the World at age 19, way back in 1987. He was Yugoslav National Champion and later Dutch National Champion in 1995 and 1998 respectively. He was also World Number 12 at several points in his carrier, participating in several highbrow events and defeating several top Grandmasters in classical time control, inclusive of, but not limited to: Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, Grandmaster Garry Kasparov, Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, Grandmaster Veselin Topalov, just retired Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik and the likes. As a player, he won the European Clubs Championship a brilliant four (4) times, and he participated in different Olympiads (picking up a Team Silver Medal with the Bosnia & Herzegovina team in Moscow 1994). In the year 2000, he won the European Rapid and Blitz Championship, and in 2009 he shared joint first position, in the classical edition of the championship. In 2013, he won two (2) individual Gold medals at the European Team Championship in Warsaw, Poland, while as a captain and coach, he went to the Olympiad with two (2) teams.

GM Ivan Sokolov is a Fide Senior Trainer and the author of eleven (11) chess books from 2009 until 2018, and was the winner of FIDE Boleslavsky award for best chess book in 2018 with his book – Chigorin Bible. He currently works as the head coach of Iran where he has helped develop young Iranian talents (GM Maghsoodloo Parham, GM Firouzja Alireza, GM Tabatabaei Mamin and IM (WGM) Khademalsharieh Sarasadat), leading them to win the Asian Continental Team Gold in all three categories (classical, rapid and blitz) in 2018.

If we truly care about the development of the future of chess in Nigeria, this is the guy to change the fate of Nigerian Chess and help us achieve the Grandmaster Title that has so far eluded our players.