Hristos Banikas

Hristodoulos Banikas (Greek: Χριστόδουλος Μπανίκας; born 20 May 1978) is a Greek chess grandmaster from Thessaloniki.

Hristos Banikas
Banikas in Heraklion, 2007
Full nameHristodoulos Banikas
CountryGreece
Born (1978-05-20) 20 May 1978
Salonica, Greece
TitleGrandmaster (2001)
FIDE rating2561 (October 2023)
Peak rating2646 (July 2014)

Chess career

Banikas won the 1990 Greek U-12 championship, the 1993 Greek U-16 championship, and the 1996 Greek U-20 championship. He won eight Greek championships from 2000 through 2005 and from 2008 to 2009. Banikas has received the Grandmaster title from FIDE in 2001.

In 2001 he lost a Man vs. Machine match against Deep Junior.[1][2] In 2002 Banikas won the European Rapid Chess Championship in Panormo, Crete edging Sergei Movsesian on tiebreak score,[3] and the 2nd Balkan Individual Championship in Istanbul.[4]

Banikas played for the Greek national team in every Chess Olympiad since 1996, except 2004, in the 2010 World Team Chess Championship winning an individual silver medal, and in every European Team Chess Championship since 2001 winning an individual silver in 2005.[5]

Playing style

Banikas is well known for entering into tactical complications. With the black pieces he usually plays the Sicilian Defence against 1.e4. With the white pieces he prefers 1.d4, but occasionally plays 1. Nf3 or 1.c4.

References
  1. "Deep Junior gewinnt Match gegen GM Hristos Banikas". ChessBase. (in German)
  2. Deep junior vs Banikas. chess.gr.
  3. Crowther, Mark (7 October 2002). "TWIC 413: European Rapid & Blitz Championship". The Week in Chess. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  4. Crowther, Mark (2002-12-23). "TWIC 424: 2nd Balkan Individual Chess Championships". The Week in Chess. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  5. Hristos Banikas team chess record at OlimpBase.org


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