Shiyam Thavandiran

Shiyam is an International Master who was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, where he currently works full-time as a machine learning engineer. In 2002, he tied for 4th in the World Youth Chess Championship U10, in a field that included Fabiano Caruana and Ding Liren. In 2005 at the age of 12, he became the youngest winner of the Canadian Junior Chess Championship in history. After completing a master's degree in mathematics in 2016 at the University of Western Ontario,  he achieved the International Master title in 2017. Despite working full-time in the AI field, he is fully committed in his pursuit of the Grandmaster title by regularly training and playing in international tournaments. He is looking for his first GM norm in Saint Louis.