GM Rafael Vaganjan (2577)

He was born on 15 October 1951 in Yerevan. At the age of 19 he achieved International Grandmaster title, following an excellent result at Vrnjacka Banja tournament, where he took the first place ahead of Leonid Stein and Ljubomir Ljubojevic. At the World Junior Championship he took fourth place. He became the winner of tournaments in Kragujevac 1974, Sao Paulo 1977, Las Palmas 1979, Manila 1981, Hastings 1982/83, Biel 1985 (the Interzonal), Leningrad 1987, Toronto 1990 and Ter Apel 1992. At Moscow 1982 and Tallinn 1983, he shared first place with Mikhail Tal. He won twice Reggio Emilia chess tournament, the 35th and 36th edition and won 56th Soviet Championship on his 38th birthday. He was a world championship Candidate twice, losing out to Andrei Sokolov in 1986 and to Lajos Portisch in 1988. Over the years, he has also won many medals in team competition, representing the Soviet Union and then Armenia during Olympiads and European Team Championships. Rafael is known for his sharp tactical style of play, even Alexey Suetin described him as a player with great natural gifts: "He has a fine feeling of the dynamics of a chess battle and knows how to intensify the play at the right moment. He is a perpetual optimist, full of ambitious intentions at every stage in every game, with an explosive temperament." Rafael´s best ranking was 2670 in January 2005. Rafael Vaganian celebrated his 60th Anniversary this year in Armenia and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov with President of Armenia and President of the Armenian Chess Federation Serzh Sargsyan congratulated him personally. From Serzh Sargsyan he received a state award and keys from the new residence.

GM Vlastimil Hort (2473)

Grandmaster Vlastimil Hort is a living legend of Czechoslovakian chess. He was born on 12 January 1944 in Kladno. He drew attention to himself with his style of chess game already in his childhood and since he reached 14 he used to be a regular contender in the final of Czechoslovakian adult championships. Ever since he was a young student, his game has been known for a superb feeling for position and his sensitive technique. He gained the international master title when he was 18 and he reached the grandmaster norm three years later. In 60s he played for his country at Chess Olympics and European championships. In 1963 he was a part of the winning team of the University Students Chess World Championship. He won several times Czechoslovakian championships (1970, 1971, 1972, and 1975). He won tournaments in Havana and Luhacovice in 1971, in Reykjavik 1972, at Sunny Beach and Hastings in 1974, in Banja Luka in 1976, in Stip, in Polanica Zdroj and in London in 1977. He was second at prestigious tournament at Wijk aan Zee in 1967 and 1975. In 1970 he was nominated to play the fourth board in the team of „the rest of the world“ against USSR team. On his board he beat a grandmaster Lev Pulugaievsky 2.5-1.5 (with three draws). He reached his biggest success at the international tournament in Manila in 1976, where he shared a second place with Pulugaievsky and he got on to candidates tournament in 1977. During the match with Boris Spassky he lost 1:2 (with 15 draws). In 1977 he played a simul in Reykjavik with 550 contenders with a result 477:10 (with 63 draws) and he also played a blind simul against 22 players. After leaving Czechoslovakia he won the West Germany championship in 1987. In 2008, during a match of Snowdrops versus Old-hands, he reached the highest rating performance (ELO 2685) out of all of the other players. He did not miss any of the matches of Snowdrops versus Old-hands.

WGM Natalia Pogonina (2451)

She was born on 9 March 1985 in Vladivostok. Natalia learned to play chess at the age of five, as her grandfather taught her the basics of the game. In 1998 she won the Russian Girls U14 National Championship. Afterwards she became European champion  three more times (U16, twice U18), bronze prize winner at the World Championship (U18) and European Women Championship-2009, winner of the gold medal at the 1st International Mind Sports Games, co-winner of the 2008 Student World Championship and Russian Superfinal in 2010. She gained the title of Woman Grandmaster in 2004. Natalia has an MA in Law degree from the Saratov State Academy of Law. Her hobbies include flamenco, music, photography, travelling, sports, literature and poetry. In 2009 she married IT-specialist and debate expert Peter Zhdanov; they have a son named Nikolai. WGM Pogonina represented her country in the Women's Olympiad (2008) scoring 6/7 as first reserve, and was top board for Russia 2 in Chess Olympiad (2010), scoring 5.5/11. In 2009 she was ranked as the 3rd most successful female chess player in the world by the Association of Chess Professionals. In 2011 Natalia became the only chess player in the world to win two prestigeous women's European titles - European Team Chess Champion and European Club Chess Champion.

IM Tania Sachdev (2428)

Tania was born on 20 August 1986 in Delhi. She started to play chess thanks to her mother Anju. In years 1995 - 2006 she represented India in many World Championships. The greatest success she achieved was in 1998 at the World Championship in Oropesa del Mar in the category of Girls U12, where she took the third place. In 2006 and 2007 she became the Indian woman champion and a year later won the Asian Chess Championship in Teheran. She became the eighth Indian Woman Grandmaster. Tania Sachdev is often called India’s most glamorous chess player, because besides chess she is also successful in the world of modelling. For example, Tania appeared as a model during India Fashion Week in 2009. But she announced that she would fully concentrate on chess for the next couple of years as she aspired to become the women’s world champion. She represented India at the Women's Olympiad in Dresden (2008) and a year later was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2009 by the Government of India. She has won the title of International Master.
 
 Best world rank among female players: 42nd (Jul. 2008)
 

 Best world rank among female players: 99th (May 2010)

The player profiles are courtesy of the official website; minor edits implemented.