2019 Saint Louis Invitational

Luis Torres is from Mexico City, Mexico. He has represented Mexico in the World Olympiad and in several World Youth Championships. He became an International Master in 2013. His most prestigious achievements include finishing runner-up in the Mexican Absolute Championship, winning the North American Youth Championship-U14, and consecutively becoming National Youth Champion of Mexico. He also represented Texas Tech in the 2014 and 2017 President’s Cup Final Four.

Keaton Kiewra is a professional Chess Instructor.  He is an International Master with two Grandmaster norms. Kiewra grew up in Lincoln Nebraska where he was the Nebraska State Chess Champion for nine consecutive years.  He also won six National Scholastic Titles during that time. Kiewra moved to Dallas in 2005 to attend UTD on a Chess Scholarship. Since graduating in 2009, he has made his living as a full time Chess Instructor. He moved to San Diego in 2013 and is the founder and manager of the San Diego Surfers team for the PRO Chess League.  Kiewra is very proud to have some extremely successful students who have won National Scholastic Titles, represented the U.S. at World Youth Championship events, and been consistently ranked toward the top of their age group nationally.

Yuriy is a FIDE Master from Ukraine with 2 IM norms. He has been Ukrainian Junior Champion and won no fewer than 10 medals at several Ukrainian Championships and a bronze at European Team Championship U-18 for the Ukrainian Team. Outside of playing, he has been teaching for several years as well as creating video opening courses and writing articles.

Abhimahnyu Mishra shatters chess prodigy records like no one else. Just last year, he became the youngest National Master in US Chess history. Now, Mishra has just achieved his final IM norm, securing the title 17 days faster than the previous world record set by India’s Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. Here in Saint Louis, he intends to begin work on securing a GM norm with the goal of becoming the youngest Grandmaster in history.

WGM Tatev Abrahamyan started playing chess at eight after her father took her to the Chess Olympiad games in 1996. She was soon playing competitively among the top players in her age group throughout Europe and eventually competed in five Olympiads, earning a bronze team medal for the United States in her first appearance. A formidable competitor, Tatev played stunning chess and managed a fantastic 7/9 at the 2010 U.S. Women's Championship. Tatev's strong play and fighting qualities in 2010 earned her the Goddess Chess Fighting Chess award, which was selected by former Women's World Champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk.

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.

Craig, a 19-year old native to the Southern California area, is an experienced International Master with one Grandmaster norm. He has beaten several GMs and is known for his sharp intuition and quick calculation. Craig is currently on a full ride scholarship at the University of Texas at Dallas from chess and national merit scholarships. He loves ultimate frisbee, running, reading, meditating, and any activities involving a large adrenaline rush (such as skydiving!).

Denes Boros is originally from Budapest, Hungary and now resides in Saint 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 the age of 14, and was U16 Olympic Champion in Denizli.

Christopher is a12-year old Korean-American from California and the youngest International Master in US history. He is the youngest player in the world to beat a FIDE rated 2700+ super GM and the youngest California State Champion. Christopher is also an award-winning composer of endgame studies. He earned 3rd prize in the 2019 FIDE World Cup in Composing, where he competed against the best composers in the world. He also won a gold medal in the 2019 Youth Chess Composing Challenge, besting the strongest study composers in the world under the age of 23.

Robby Kevlishvili is an 18 year-old IM from the Netherlands. He started playing at the age of 4, and has since played in multiple European and World Youth Chess Championships. One of his best performances was at the 2013 World U12 championship where he finished in shared second place in the main tournament and won the gold medal in the Blitz championship. Robby's other achievements include winning the 2018 Vandoeuvre Open, and winning the 2018 Noteboom Memorial. Robby currently has one GM norm and is majoring in Finance at Saint Louis University.