Suat Atalık

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Suat Atalık

Full name	Suat Atalık
Country	Turkey Bosnia and Herzegovina
Born	October 10, 1964 (1964-10-10) (age 43) Istanbul, Turkey

Title	Grandmaster


FIDE rating	2597
Peak rating	2632 (April 2006)

Suat Atalık (born October 10, 1964) is a Grandmaster of chess. As of the October 2006 FIDE rating list, he is ranked number 187 in the world and number two in Turkey, behind Mikhail Gurevich.

He went to Galatasaray Lycee and studied Psychology in Bosphorus University.

He was born in Turkey in 1964, and represented Turkey in the World Junior Championship in 1983 and was their top board for several Chess Olympiads.

Despite this, and his current residence in Istanbul, he had disputes with chess organizers in his country, so he declared himself to be a resident of Bosnia and Herzegovina, his ancestral home.

During the 2000 World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Atalik insisted on playing for Bosnia rather than Turkey. As a result, the organizers of the Olympiad banned him from the competition.

After the selection of the new national chess federation, he has returned to play under the Turkish national team again.

In 2003 he took first at Mar del Plata.

On November 11, 2005 he married 22-year-old woman grandmaster Ekaterina Polovnikova from Russia. Former world championship challenger Nigel Short, who also played in the World Junior Championship in 1983 was his best man.

Atalık was the only Grandmaster registered in Turkish Chess Federation in Turkey beginning in 1994 and ending in 2005, when Mikhail Gurevich took up residence there. But he is yet the only Turkish GM from Turkey. At the moment strong junior players like Mert Erdoğdu or Umut Atakişi are considered to be the 2nd GM within 10 years.