Andrey Evgenyevich Esipenko (; born 22 March 2002) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He won the European U10 Chess Championship in 2012, and both the European U16 and World U16 Chess Championship in 2017. Together with 43 other Russian elite chess players, Esipenko signed an open letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin, protesting against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Chess career Early career Esipenko was born in Novocherkassk in Rostov Oblast to a Russian family. He started playing chess when he was five years old. Esipenko became European U10 Chess Champion in 2012. He earned his FIDE master title in 2013. He secured all of his grandmaster norms by late 2017 and was awarded the title by FIDE in April 2018. From 30 May to 10 June 2017, he took part in the 2017 European Individual Chess Championship. He scored 6½/11 (+4–2=5). His was 2618. He won both the European U16 and World U16 Chess Championship in 2017. He competed in the 2017 World Rapid Chess Championship in December, scoring 7½/15 for a performance rating of 2622. During the tournament he played a queen against Sergey Karjakin, which Leonard Barden said may be "the move of the year". He scored 11½/21 in the World Blitz Chess Championship, placing 41st out of 138. In February 2018, Esipenko participated in the Aeroflot Open. He finished fifty-seventh out of ninety-two, scoring 4/9 (+1–2=6). In March 2018, he competed in the European Individual Chess Championship. He placed forty-eighth, scoring 7/11 (+4–1=6). 2019–present Esipenko competed in the Tata Steel Challengers in January 2019, placing second with 8½/13 (+5–1=7). In March, he participated in the European Individual Chess Championship. He placed 16th with 7½/11 (+6–2=3) and qualified for the Chess World Cup 2019. At the Chess World Cup, Esipenko defeated former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov in round one. Paired against Peter Svidler in round two, Esipenko drew the classical games but was eliminated in the rapid tiebreaks. In January 2020, Esipenko participated in the Gibraltar Masters. He was sole leader after six rounds with 5½/6, and ultimately shared first on 7½/10 for a performance rating of 2809. In a four-way playoff for the title, Esipenko was eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual tournament winner David Paravyan. Esipenko competed in the Tata Steel Masters in January 2021. In round eight, he defeated World Champion Magnus Carlsen in their