Illya Nyzknyk

Grandmaster Ilya Nyzhnyk started playing chess at the age of 5. He progressed very fast, and found early success by tying for 2nd at the World Under 12 Chess Championship in 2006. A year later in 2007, he earned his FIDE Master title. He cemented his success with a dominating victory at the Moscow Open Group B tournament by winning it with the score of 8.5 out of 9, and a performance of 2633. Since then, Nyzhnyk has won various international events such as European Youth Championship under 12 in 2007, and under 16 in 2008.  In the beginning of 2011, Nyzhnyk was officially awarded a title of Grandmaster, and continued improving by scoring top 3 in events such as Tata Steel Chess Tournament – GMC, Reykjavik Open 2011, and the Independence Cup-2011. In August 2014, Nyzhnyk began his study at Webster University. Since then, he has been a valuable member of the SPICE program and was on the team which won 5 consecutive PanAm InterCollegiate Chess Championships and 3 straight Final Four Championships. In addition to being a dynamic team player, Nyzhnyk also added to the success of Webster’s Chess Program by winning the U.S. Open, National Open, and 4 World Open titles, etc. He completed his undergraduate degree at Webster University in Computer Science in 2018, and is now working on his graduate degree in Cyber Security.