Paehtz Elisabeth

Born: January 8, 1985 | Federation: Germany | Rating: 2479

Elisabeth was born in the family of Thomas Paehtz – one of the strongest grandmasters in East Germany. Trained by her father, the young Lisa quickly became the best in her homeland and one of the best in juniors' world championships. Her first European zonal tournament in 1998 brought Paehtz 5^th place and the title of grandmaster. In 1999, fourteen year-old Lisa became the national champion among adults. Starting with the Elista Olympiad in 1998, Elisabeth Paehtz represents her country in the tournament of nations.

In 1999, the German champion was one of the four advisors in the Kasparov vs Rest-of-the-World match and played two exhibition games against the 13^th world champion. Kasparov noted the girl's talent and helped her to find sponsors for subsequent training. Paehtz won the U18 world championship in 2002 and the U20 world championship in 2005, also earning the title of male international master.

At the 2001 world championship, she became one of the main newsmakers, knocking out Iweta Rajlich and the Chinese player Wang Pin. The next knockout for the German was purely Chinese: she knocked out Wang Ping and defeated Zhao Xue, but lost to Xu Yuhua.

Having finished her studies, Elisabeth Paehtz joined the army. There, she played in the NATO championship, where she took the third place. She was a regular medalist of Russian championships as a member of Saratov's "Economist" team and participated in the European champions' cup.

Elisabeth was the finalist of the women's world championship of Fischer Random Chess, where she competed for the first place and lost to Alexandra Kosteniuk. During the last few years, Elisabeth firmly retains her place among the world's leading players and her rating was near the 2500 mark several times. At the latest European Women Individual Chess Championship (Turkey, April 2019) Elisabeth Paehtz won the bronze medal.

Elisabeth Paehtz is not only a chess player but a very creative person. The grandmaster sings well, often competing at closed tournaments. She speaks several foreign languages.