Career
Fridman learned the rules of chess when he was around four years of age. He soon became a regular player of youth tournaments, competing at the national, regional and international levels. His biggest junior success occurred at Duisburg in 1992, when he took home a bronze medal in the Under-16 category of the World Youth Chess Championship.
By the mid-1990s, Fridman was recognised as a serious force in Latvian chess.
In 1999 he relocated to Germany and qualified as a Grandmaster in 2001. Most of Fridman"s major tournament victories have occurred after the year 2000.
These include outright or shared first places at Essen ("B" Group) 2001, Recklinghausen Summer Open 2002, Zurich Christmas Open 2002, Southampton, Bermuda 2003 ("B" Group), Stratton Mountain 2004, Marseille Open 2006, Nuremberg 2006, Lausanne 2006, Venaco (Corsica) 2006 and the Liverpool International Open of 2007. He is a renowned master of speed chess and, among other victories, took first places at the Essen rapid contest of 2000 and Dutch Open rapid tourney of 2008.
Playing internet competitions, he has enjoyed success at the Dos Hermanas tournaments of 2004 and 2005.
He first represented the Latvian men"s team on board 4 at the Yerevan Oympiad of 1996 and at the Pula 1997 European Team Chess Championship. He returned to the Olympiad team as first board in 2004 (Calvià) and in 2006 (Turin).