The Field
Yangyi Yu
Yangyi Yu is a Chinese chess Grandmaster. He earned his title at the age of 14 years old in 2009. Yu was a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese team at the 41st Chess Olympiad in 2014 and at the World Team Chess Championship in 2015. At the 2014 Chess Olympiad in Tromso he also won the individual gold medal on board 3 with a performance rating of 2912, the best of the entire event.
Sam Sevian
Samuel Sevian is an American chess Grandmaster. He earned the title of Grandmaster in 2014 at the age of 13. In 2012, he became the World U12 Champion. During his appearance at the 2015 US Championship, Sevian defeated Wesley So, one of the top ten Grandmasters in the world. In 2017, he won the American Continental Chess Championship, being the youngest in history to do so. Recently, Sevian represented the U.S. national team at the 2019 World Team Championships, winning an individual bronze medal for his performance on the second board. In 2021, Sevian took third place in the U.S. Chess Championship.
Grigoriy Oparin
Grigoriy Oparin is an Russian chess Grandmaster. He earned his Grandmaster title in 2013. That same year he was on the Russian team that won silver in the World Youth Under-16 Chess Olympiad. He has won the Russian Junior Championship, Russian Higher League, and was the best player at the Nutcracker Match of the Generations in Moscow.
Ray Robson
Ray Robson is a American chess Grandmaster. As a child chess prodigy, Robson won many national scholastic titles and represented the U.S. in international scholastic events. In 2008, Ray won his first major tournament at the Miami open, and later that year broke Hikaru Nakamura's record for youngest American GM when he achieved his title at age 14 years, 11 months, and 6 days. Robson's notable achievements include 2009 U.S. Junior Champion, 2009 Pan American Junior Champion, 2012 SPICE Cup Champion, 2014 Millionaire Chess 2nd place, and 2015 U.S. Championship 2nd place.
Benjamin Gledura
Benjamin Gledura is an Hungarian chess Grandmaster. He earned his Grandmaster title in 2016. Gledura competed in the Tata Steel Challengers in January 2019, placing third. In March of 2019, he participated in the European Individual Chess Championship. He placed 19th qualified for the Chess World Cup 2019.
Aram Hakobyan
Aram Hakobyan is an Armenian chess Grandmaster. He started playing chess when he was 6 years old and earned his Grandmaster title in 2018. He became Armenian Youth Champion in 5 different age groups (10,12,14,18), becoming World Chess Champion in U12 in 2012, earning vice-champion of the European Chess Championship U14 years in 2014, bronze medalist of the of the European U14 Championship in 2015, bronze medalist in U16 team Olympiad in 2016 and World Junior bronze medalist. Hakobyan is currently a member of the Webster University chess team.
Jonas Buhl Bjerre
Jonas Buhl Bjerre is a Danish chess Grandmaster. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 2020. Bjerre's most notable accomplishments include winning the 2015 Nordic Youth Chess Championship Group E, 2016 Nordic Youth Chess Championship Group D, and 2017 European Youth Chess Championships U14.
Ilya Smirin
Ilya Smirin is an Israeli chess Grandmaster. He was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1990. Smirin has competed in four FIDE World Championships (1999, 2000, 2002, 2004) and in three FIDE World Cups (2005, 2009, 2015). His most notable accomplishments include winning first league of the USSR Championship (1987, 1989), Israel Championship (1992, 1994, 1999), 2022 Biel Chess Festival, silver medal at the 2005 Maccabiah Games, 2007 Acropolis International, and 2014 World Open.
Mikhail Antipov
Mikhail Antipov is an Russian chess Grandmaster. He was awarded the title of Master of Sports of Russia at age 15, and was awarded his Grandmaster title a year later at age 16. In 2015, Antipov won the U20 World Junior Chess Championship. He is currently a student and chess team member at the University of Missouri Columbia.
Jianchao Zhou
Jianchao Zhou is an Chinese chess Grandmaster. He was a co-champion of Asian Team Championship in 2008, and has competed in three FIDE World Cups (2007, 2009, 2015). Zhou's most recent achievements include winning the 1st Chinese Rapid Championship in Hefei, and Mission 360 GM/IM Norm #1 tournament in San Jose. Zhou currently plays for Shanghai chess club in the China Chess League (CCL).
John Burke
John Burke is an American chess grandmaster. Burke played his first tournament in 2008, when he was 7 years old. A chess prodigy, Burke achieved the FIDE Master title in August 2015, and the International Master title in January 2016. He was awarded his Grandmaster title in January 2018. Some of his best tournament victories are the US Masters 2018, Foxwoods Open 2019, and 2020 US Junior Championship (held online). Burke is a member of the SPICE program and will be starting his Junior year at Webster University in the fall. Outside of chess, Burke enjoys listening to and creating music, as well as writing.
Kamil Dragun
Kamil Dragun is a Polish chess Grandmaster. He started playing chess with his grandfather at 5 years old. Dragun's biggest achievements include 4th place representing Poland in the 2018 Olympiad, 2019 Polish Champion, 2010 World Youth Championship (U16) gold medal, 2009 Europeean Youth Championship gold medal, 2009 World Youth Championship (U14) silver medal. In 2017, Dragun moved to the U.S. to attend the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley studying financial planning and play on the chess team. While in school, the chess team won three national championships.
Nikolas Theodorou
Nikolas Theodorou is an Greek chess Grandmaster. One of his most notable achievements is having won the Greek championship in his age group five times. He is currently residing in Saint Louis, majoring in Engineering Physics at Saint Louis University.
Guillermo Vázquez
Guillermo Vasquez is an Paraguayan chess International Master. He is a two time Paraguayan chess champion (2010, 2011). Vazquez's most notable achiements include representing Paraguay in four Olympiads (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013).
Tigran Harutyunyan
Tigran Harutyunyan is an Armenian chess Grandmaster. He was awarded his Grandmaster title in 2019, becoming the 43rd Grandmaster from Armenia.
Abhimanyu Mishra
Abhimanyu Mishra is an American chess Grandmaster. He is a ambitious and hard working player who holds all the youngest international and national records, including youngest person ever to qualify as a Grandmaster, making the achievment at 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days.
Youngest Ever Grand Master in the World (12 years 4 months)
Youngest Ever International Master in the World (10 years 9 months)
Youngest Ever USA National Master (9 year 2 months)
Youngest Ever USA National Expert (7 year 6 month)
Christopher Yoo
Christopher is a 15-year old Korean-American Grandmaster-Elect. He is the youngest ever to beat a FIDE-rated 2700+ "Super GM" and the youngest ever California State Champion. Christopher is also an award-winning composer of endgame studies. He earned the bronze medal in the 2019 FIDE World Cup in Composing. In 2021, he placed 2nd to GM Praggnanandhaa in the finals of the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour, which featured many of the strongest juniors in the world.
Nicolas Checa
Nicolas Checa is a Grandmaster from New York. Checa achieved the FIDE Master title in 2015 and the International Master title in 2016. In 2018, he earned his last GM norm, and his Grandmaster title was approved in 2019. Checa has won several scholastic titles in New York and nationally. He was named a Samford Fellow in 2020, which was extended into 2021. Checa is currently a student at Yale University.
Cemil Can Ali Marandi
Cemil Can Ali Marandi is an Turkish chess Grandmaster. He has a unique achievement of winning the European Youth Championships for five times in each and every category: U10 in 2008, U12 in 2010, U14 in 2011, U16 in 2014, U18 in 2015. Cemil Can Ali Marandi participated in four World Youth U16 Chess Olympiads (2009, 2010, 2013, 2014), where he won bronze medal in team scoring in 2014. He also participated in four European U18 Team Chess Championship (2011, 2014, 2015, 2016), where he won gold (2014) and silver (2011) medals in team scoring, as well as gold (2014) medal in individual scoring. He is currently a student and chess team member at Saint Louis University.
Brandon Jacobson
Brandon Jacobson is an American chess grandmaster. He became a FIDE Master in 2017, an International Master in 2018, and was awarded the Grandmaster title in 2020. He is an undergraduate student of Columbia University, majoring in economics.