Hristos Banikas

Full name	Hristodoulos Banikas
Country	Greece
Born	May 20, 1978 Salonica, Greece
Title	Grandmaster
Peak rating	2626 (January 2012)

Hristodoulos (Hristos) Banikas (born May 20, 1978) is a distinguished Greek chess player. He is a resident of Salonica.

Achievements in chess

Banikas won the 1990 Greek U-12 championship, the 1993 Greek U-16 championship, and the 1996 Greek U-20 championship. He won eight Greek Championships from 2000 through 2005 and from 2008 to 2009. Ranked number 196 in the world, his July 2009 FIDE Elo rating is 2598, the highest he has yet achieved. Banikas has received the Grandmaster title from FIDE. He is the reigning Greek champion, although he is only the fourth-highest rated Greek player.

In 2001 he lost a Man vs. Machine match against Deep Junior.

Chess style

Banikas is well known for entering into tactical complications. With the black pieces he usually plays the Sicilian Defence against 1.e4. With the white pieces he prefers 1.d4, but occasionally plays 1. Nf3 or 1.c4.