Elisabeth Pähtz

Elisabeth Pähtz, Porto Carras EchT 2011
Country	Germany
Born	January 8, 1985 Erfurt, East Germany
Title	International Master Woman Grandmaster
Peak rating	2493 (July 2012)

Elisabeth Pähtz (sometimes spelled Paehtz; born January 8, 1985, in Erfurt) is a German chess player who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM).

Biography

Pähtz was trained in chess from early childhood by her father Thomas Pähtz, a chess Grandmaster himself. At the age of nine years she won her first German championship in the under-11 age group. In 1999 she became Germany's women's chess champion. She served as one of four advisors on the World team in the 1999 Kasparov versus The World chess match.

In 2002 Pähtz became the World Youth Champion of the under-18 age group, and in 2004 the World Junior Girls Champion. The same year at the European women's championship in Dresden she took 16th place.

Pähtz attended the Sport High School Dresden until 2004 and is among the strongest native German chess players. She plays for the Dresdner Sport Club 1898 and other associations.

As one of the greatest German new-generation talents Pähtz was the subject of a large media interest when growing up. Among other things it was reported that she was likely to fail high school mathematics. Her own explanation for this however, is that she is an intuitive player and so does not have to be a universal genius.

In September 2015 she married Italian IM Luca Shytaj.