The Field
Ray Robson
Robson has won seven national scholastic titles and finished in the top ten at each of the World Youth Chess Championships from 2004 to 2007. He also tied for first place in the 2005 and 2006 (U12 Boys, Silver on tiebreak) Pan American Youth Chess Championships. On July 16, 2009, he won the U.S. Junior Chess Championship, becoming one of the youngest champions ever. Robson played in his first World Cup in November 2009 in Russia and again in 2011. Robson has also won the Webster University - SPICE Cup Open in St. Louis in 2012, and he finished second in Millionaire Chess in Las Vegas in 2014, losing to Wesley So in the final round. Even more, Robson has played in many of the major open tournaments in the United States, including the U.S. Championships since 2007. When he qualified for the 2007 U.S. Championships, it made him the youngest player in the history of the event to participate.
Sethuraman
Sethruaman is an Asian Gradmaster and former Asian Champion. He was a member of the bronze winning Olympiad team in 2014, gold winning team at the Asian Nations Cup, 2016, and silver medal team at the Asain Nations Cup in 2014 and 2018. Sethuraman has also placed at several other major tournaments including runner-up in the Aeroflot International Open in Moscow, Russia 2018; third place at the Dubai International chess Open, 2018; Fourth place at Gibraltar International Event, 2018; joint winner of the Sharjah International Open 2017; and second place at BRICS Masters, China.
Dariusz Swiercz
Dariusz Swiercz is 23-year old Grandmaster from Poland. He became GM at the age of 14 years. In 2011 he became World Champion U20 and in 2012 World Champion U18. He represented Poland on Olympiads in Istanbul (2012) and Baku (2016). In 2016, he won 3rd Millionaire Chess. Now, he resides in Saint Louis and attends Saint Louis University, majoring in Economics.
Jon Ludvig Hammer
Jon Ludvig Hammer has tried to mimic Magnus Carlsen, and it has served him well. He became a grandmaster at age 18, and has several open tournament victories to his name – the most prestigious ones being Rilton Cup (2014 and 2015), Xtracon Open (2018), and London (2013). His best result though was a silver medal on board 1 of the European Team Championship 2009 – ahead of big names like Peter Svidler, Michael Adams, Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana. Hammer arrives in Saint Louis having won his last three tournaments in row – one of which made him the reigning Norwegian Champion.
Lazaro Bruzon
Lazaro was World Junior Champion (under 20) and was the Cuban Champion 6 times. He won The Continental Champion in 2005 and 2011 and was Iberoamerican Champion in 2005 and 2015.
Yuriy Kuzubov
Yuriy started to play chess at the age of 6. When he was 14, he got the title of international grandmaster. He has been the champion in Ukraine among boys many times (2001 U12, 2002 U12 ,2004 U14, 2006 U20). He is also a member of Ukraine's national team (2005 and 2017) and has won many international tournaments. One of his biggest achievements is achieving first place at the Men's Championship of Ukraine in 2014. Yuriy has also participated in the World Cup in 2017 (wins against Zhigalko and Mamedyarov) and was the coach of Ruslan Ponomariov at the World Cup 2009 (Ponomariov lost in a final to Boris Gelfand on a tie-break).
Aleksey Dreev
Dreev’s chess career began when he was young winning making tournaments including World Under-16 in 1983 and 1984, and the European Junior Champion in 1988. In 1989, he became a grandmaster and made his first appearance in the Russian Championship. At the 2004 Russian Championship, he placed third while legendary Garry Kasparov won the event. He has participated the world championship cycles and FIDE World Championship tournaments (1999, 2000, 2001, and 2004). His best tournament victories were at the 1995 Biel Grandmaster Tournament and at the 1995 Hoogovens tournament. Other tournament victories include the 2000 European Blitz Chess Championship, 2007 Parsvnath Open in New Delhi, 2008 Magistral Casino de Barcelona round-robin tournament, 2011 Cento Open, and the 2012 European Rapid Chess Championship in Warsaw. Dreev has also represented Russia in five Chess Olympiads between 1992 and 2004, with the Russian team winning gold medals in 1992, 1994, and 1996, and silver in 2004.
Var Akobian
Varuzhan was the U.S. Junior Champion in 2003, and the winner of the World Open in 2002, 2004, and 2007. He also played for the U.S. in the 2009 World Team Championship and helped them earn the Silver Medal. Varuzhan has played in the last 10 U.S. Championships at the Saint Louis Chess Club. He recently moved to Saint Louis and is regularly in the rotation for the Saint Louis Chess Club’s grandmaster in residence program.
Alex Lenderman
Alexander Lenderman is a grandmaster who resides in Brooklyn, New York. He coached the Olympiad gold medal winning team in 2016. Lenderman has got to round 3 of the 2017 World Cup, beating 2700+ Pavel Eljanov and World Junior Champion Aryan Tari along the way. He has also won numerous big tournaments, including the 2015 World Open, 2011 and 2017 US Open, 2012 National Open. Lenderman also received an individual gold medal in 2015 at the World Team Championship in the Olympiad.
Eric Hansen
This charismatic and sporty Canadian became a Grandmaster in 2012 and has been a rising star in the chess community since. His internet presence on YouTube and Twitch, chessbrahs, involves himself and other titled players playing chess online for fun. Hansen’s online chess fame has given him many devoted fans and followers. In 2007, Hansen became a National Master, and placed second in the 2008 World U-16 Championships. Later that year he became a FIDE Master, and by 2010 he earned the International Master title. He tied for first in the 2011 Canadian Championship and won the 2012 Canadian Open. Other accomplishments in Hansen’s career include him qualifying for two World Cups and becoming a member of the Canadian National Team, representing Canada in the 2012 Olympiad and putting up another spectacular performance at the 2016 Olympiad. Hansen is also a member of the PRO Chess League, the Montreal Chess Brahs, who reached the final four in the first season.
Hovhannes Gabuzyan
In his youth, Hovhannes Gabuzyan placed second at the European Youth Chess Championship in 2011 and 2012. Later that year he was awarded the Grandmaster title. Since then, he has won the World University Chess Championship and the 77th Armenian Chess Championship in 2017.
Sergei Azarov
Sergei Azarov is a Grandmaster from Belarus. He graduated from Republic College of Olympic Reserve in 2002, because a Grandmaster in 2003, and graduated from the Belarusian State University of Physical Education in 2006. Azarov won the Belarus Chess Championship in 2001 and 2002. At the 2003 U-20 World Championship in Azerbaijan, he took second place and won the fifth Istanbul Chess Festival in 2006. Azarov has also won the 3rd Annual Continental Class Championships in Arlington, Virginia, US in 2012; tied for 1st-2nd in the Cappelle-la-Grande Open in 2014; won the Chess Club Championships in Belarus, Ukraine, Turkey, Slovakia; won the Washington International Chess Tournament in 2014; won the New York International in 2015; won the Empire City Open in 2017; and took part in 5 Chess Olympiads (2000-2008). He has been playing for the Czech Chess Club “Beskydska Sachova Skola”, Frydek-Mistek for more than 10 years. Even more, Azarov was a participant of the Chess World Cup in 2011 and 2013.
Conrad Holt
A native of Wichita, KS, Conrad Holt earned his GM title in 2012 at age 18 while a member of the UT Dallas chess team. He graduated from UTD in 2015 with a BS magna cum laude in Physics. Holt tied for first in the World Open in 2013 and 2014, and won the 2014 US Open. He currently works as a software engineer at Google in Mountain View and was named the Bay Area Chess 2017 Tournament MVP.
Elshan Moradiabadi
Elshan Moradiabadi learned the game of chess at the age of seven and earned his GM title as an Iranian in 2005. Before that, Moradiabadi won the Iranian championship in 2001. Elshan was the top player in Iran for the period of three (non-consecutive) years. Elshan moved to the US in 2012 and has played for the US federation since 2017. Elshan spent five years at Texas Tech, within which period he won one Pan Am and one final four with the Texas Tech chess team. He also earned two Masters degree during this period. Elshan currently resides in Durham, North Carolina where he teaches chess to youngsters and talented players. Elshan loves to watch movies, read books, and learn about difference sciences.
Steven Zierk
Steven Zierk is an American Grandmaster from California best known for winning the World Under-18 championship in 2010. Steven learned the game at age six and climbed to 1500 before spending five years away from serious chess. After returning in 2007, Steven gained six hundred rating points in a year with rating gains in twenty-four consecutive tournaments. Steven’s climb culminated in victory at the 2010 World Under 18 Championships, winning by a full point with 9.5/11. The next year Steven would begin a new break from chess, this time for undergraduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He graduated in 2015 with a degree in Math with Computer Science. He has since returned to chess and recently earned the GM title in June at the 2018 Charlotte Summer GM Invitational. Steven now lives in California and aside from playing and teaching chess enjoys weightlifting and reading whatever he gets his hands on.
Ashwin Jayaram
Ashwin Jayaram, is a Grandmaster from Bangalore, India currently living in St Louis, Missouri. He has won many Asian Junior titles, and was also a member of the Webster University Chess Team. Apart from playing competitively, he also teaches and writes about chess. He got his Masters in Finance and MBA from Webster University and is also currently working for Brown Smith Wallace.
Akshat Chandra
Akshat is a Chess Grandmaster from Saint Louis. Akshat started playing chess at the age of around 9 1/2 years. He was the 2015 US Junior Champion, a distinction achieved in his first appearance, and also the former National High School Champion and National Junior High K-9 Champion. Akshat is also the #1 ranked junior rapid chess player in the country since 2014 and is the former National High School Blitz Champion. More can be learned about him on his blog AkshatChandra.com, which chronicles his journey to a Grandmaster.
Brandon Jacobson
Brandon Jacobson is a 14 year old active player from New Jersey. He is currently the youngest International Master in U.S. with a peak FIDE rating of 2472
Denes Boros
Denes Boros is a Grandmaster from Budapest, Hungary that now resides in Saint Louis, Missouri. He has a Bachelor degree in Psychology and currently plays individual and team events, while also coaching. While still playing competitively, Boros is also very active on social media (twitter) and works as a chess journalist (American Chess Magazine,US Chess). He was a special commentator for the Carlsen-Karjakin World Championship Match held in New York, for the New York Times. Some of his most notable chess achievements include coming in third in the Hungarian Junior Championship at the age of 14, and was U16 Olympic Champion in Denizli.
Christopher Yoo
Christopher Yoo is an 11-year old Korean-American FIDE master who learned how to play chess shortly before he turned 7 and became the youngest master in US history at the age of 9 years and 11 months. He is currently the world’s highest-rated 11-year old. He has earned two IM norms and needs one more for his International Master title. He is the reigning North American Youth Champion for under 16 and recently became the youngest State Champion in California history, beating the old record set by then 16-year old Sam Shankland. Christopher is a member of the San Jose Hackers of the PRO Chess League and does commentary for their online broadcasts when he’s not playing for the team.