Zurab Azmaiparashvili (; born 16 March 1960) is a chess grandmaster from Georgia. His peak Elo rating was 2702, achieved in July 2003. Career Azmaiparashvili became a Grandmaster in 1988. Among his achievements are a 2810 performance rating at the 1998 Chess Olympiad and first-place finishes at Pavlodar 1982, Moscow 1986, Albena 1986, Tbilisi 1986, London (Lloyds Bank Open) 1989, and in the 2003 European Individual Chess Championship in Silivri. In 2010 he tied for 1st–2nd with IM Oliver Barbosa in the 1st ASEAN Chess Championship in Singapore, and won the event on tie-break. Azmaiparashvili is active in chess politics. He is President of the European Chess Union and a vice-president of international chess federation FIDE. In August 2009, he was appointed as captain of Azerbaijani chess team and won European Team Chess Championship in Novi Sad (Serbia). Controversies Azmaiparashvili was alleged to have rigged the results of the Strumica tournament of 1995 to boost his rating. The tournament, in which he played 18 rounds against significantly weaker opponents, is generally regarded as an illegitimate event. In 2003, Sveshnikov referred to the Azmaiparashvili incident and similar case involving Alexandru Crisan as "open secrets", at a time when both purported culprits were heavily involved in FIDE politics. In winning the 2003 European Championship in Istanbul, Azmaiparashvili retracted a move against Vladimir Malakhov (who subsequently finished second). By retracting his blunder and playing a sensible move, Azmaiparashvili won the game and the tournament. Malakhov could have enforced the rules but said that he was too shocked to react. Azmaiparashvili made chess news in 2004 when, at the closing ceremony of the 36th Chess Olympiad in Calvià, he was arrested by local police and subsequently held in custody for several days. The attitude of the event's organizers towards Azmaiparashvili had apparently been soured when, upon his arrival in Spain, he had attempted to secure himself two hotel rooms, claiming he was entitled to one in his capacity as a FIDE vice-president, and another as a player at the event. This sour mood seems to have brought him extra attention at the closing ceremony when he approached the stage, apparently in an attempt to inform FIDE officials that the organizers had neglected to award a prize named in honour of Georgian former Women's World Champion Nona Gaprindashvili. He came into conflict with security officials, and a scuffle broke out resulting in injuries both to