Happy Birthday Zurab Sturua
"Today in Chess History" saw the births of five Grandmasters:
- Zurab Sturua of Georgia, born 6/8/1959, GM 1991.
- Kazbek Akbaev of Russia, born 1981, GM 2015.
- Alexander Moskalenkoof Russia, born 1988, GM 2018.
- Davit Jojua of Georgia, born 1989, GM 2009.
- Yu Yangyi of China, born 1994, GM 2009.
Zurab Sturua became a grandmaster in 1991 and is married to Grandmaster Nino Gurieli. Sturua won the Georgian Chess Championship in 1975, 1977, 1981, 1984 and 1985; and played for Georgia in the Chess Olympiads of 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2002. Sturua won the Masters Open of the Biel Chess Festival in 1991 and 1996. He tied for 1st at Pula 1997, and In 2005 he tied for 1st at the Zayed Open in Dubai, winning the tournament on tiebreak. Sturua won the over-50 section of the World Senior Championship in 2014 and won the same division at the European Senior Championship in 2015.
