Alejandro Ramirez

Last year’s runner-up, Alejandro Ramirez was inspired by the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer when he was four years old. He became FIDE Master at the age of 9, an International Master at the age of 13 and a Grandmaster at the age of 15.

In May 2003, he secured his first GM norm at 14 by scoring a stellar 7/9 at the Capablanca in Memoriam Tournament held in La Habana, Cuba. 

The following year, he tied for first place (together with GM Lenier Dominguez from Cuba) in the Zonal Tournament held in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in August 2003, to secure his second GM norm. 

He obtained his third norm a few months later at the Los Inmortales Tournament at Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. At the age of 15, he became the first Centro-American to achieve the Grandmaster chess title awarded by the International Chess Federation (FIDE), and became, at that time, the second youngest chess grandmaster. 

Major tournament victories include first place in the Morelia Open 2008 and the first place in the U.S. Chess Open 2010 held in Irvine, California.

He studied video game design at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) ultimately earning a master’s degree in Arts & Technology. Alejandro currently serves as an editor for the popular chess news website ChessBase.