The Field

Mark Paragua is a Grandmaster born in Manila, Philippines and currently living in New York City. He was the 1998 World U-14 Rapid Champion. Paragua was also a member of his national chess olympiad team on four separate occasions (2002,2004,2006 and 2012). He was a World Cup qualifier in 2004, 2005 and 2013. Paragua was also the 2005 co-champion Asian Zonal at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Djurabek Khamrakulov was born in Samarkand,Uzbekistan. His father taught him to play chess at just five years old. Djurabek was the Uzbek Championship winner three times (2008, 2009, 2013). He was also a member of the national Uzbekistan team at the World Chess Olympiad in 2008 in Dresden ,Germany, 2010 in Khanta Mansisk,Russia, and 2012 in Istanbul,Turkey. Outside of national tournaments, Djurabek has won several international tournaments in Spain, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, and Turkey. He is currently an International Master, but he has 2 GM norms. Almost ten years ago, he was in peak form and had 2554 FIDE rating. Now, Djurabek hopes that this “10 year anniversary” at the Saint Louis Norm Congress will be his lucky charm and he will receive his third GM norm.

Advait learned how to play chess at 7 years old and played his first tournament at 8. He has won the past 4 Oklahoma state championships and won the Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions two years in a row in 2014 and 2015. Today, Advait is an IM with 2 GM norms, and he received one of his norms from the 2017 UTD Fall tournament where he won with 7/9 and a 2700+ performance rating.

Denes Boros is originally from Budapest, Hungary and now resides in St. Louis, Missouri. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and currently plays individual and team events, while also coaching. Denes is also very active on social media (twitter), and 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. Boros  came third in the Hungarian Junior Championship at age of 14, and was U16 Olympic Champion in Denizli.

International Master Joel Banawa is currently one of the ACE Arizona State Champions and a former Southern California State Champion. He won many local tournaments both in Arizona and Los Angeles. He was also a successful scholastic player winning multiple nationals in the United States and in the Philippines. He is the owner and head trainer at Rising Phoenix Chess Academy producing national champions, national masters, and state champions.

Brandon Jacobson is a 14 year old FIDE Master from New Jersey. His current rating is 2376. In 2016, Jacobson beat his closest rival, Andrew Zheng, to get clear first place in the Barber tournament of K-8 Champions.

Aaron is currently a FIDE master needing 12 rating points and 1 IM norm for the title! He has won many Oregon junior state championships and have attended the World Youth, the North American Youth, and multiple other national scholastic events.  Since entering college, Aaron have won the Chicago Class Championships and made two IM norms (at the 2016 SPICE Cup and the 2017 Chicago Open).

Tatev Abrahamyan started playing chess at 8 after her father took her to the Chess Olympiad games in 1996. There she met Grandmaster Judit Polgar, arguably the greatest woman player of all time and the only woman in the tournament. Tatev is a formidable competitor. At the 2010 U.S. Women's Championship, she played her heart out to a fantastic 7/9 score, which would usually be enough to net first place, but actually put her in a tie for second place, half a point behind Irina Krush. Tatev's strong play and fighting qualities in 2010 earned her the 9 Queens/goddess chess fighting spirit award, which was selected by former Women's World Champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk. At the 2011 U.S. Women's Championship, Tatev turned in a remarkable performance, falling just short to Anna Zatonskih in the playoff finals to finish in second place. That same year, Abrahamyan graduated from California State University Long Beach with a double-major in psychology and political science. Tatev is still a strong competitor at the U.S. Women’s Championships and is often a crowd favorite. She is also a regular journalist for Grand Chess Tour tournaments and teaches chess in California.

Qiyu Zhou  is an on and off amateur chess player and pole vaulter  depending on  her school schedule , but she  demonstrated her chess talent at a very young age. At the age of 5, she won the Finnish Youth Chess Championship U10-open. In 2008, she won the silver medal  in the World Youth Chess Championship U8-G, which drove her to become a world champion one day.  She realized her childhood dream of becoming an U-14G world chess champion  in 2014. Her North American Chess Champion for U18-G in 2015 awarded her the WIM title.  In 2017 she played in the Women's World Chess Championship after won the Canadian Women's Zonal in 2016. She is now focused on pursuing her passion in academy and pole vaulting.