2019 U.S. Championship

Master of blindfold chess, Gareev’s incredible memory makes him a formidable opponent in this year’s field. Gareev began learning chess from his grandfather when he was four, and after he moved to the US, his career took off. He attended the University of Texas, Brownsville where he lead the team to its first ever national championship. Gareev was then awarded the Samford Chess Fellowship in 2012.

Gareev holds the world record for blindfold chess having conducted a simul with 48 opponents in 2016. His memory gives him the advantage of many opponents in deeply analyzed lines. He believes that his experience with blindfold chess has improved his focus across all chess play.  

Liang is the youngest player in the field this year. He is also a chess prodigy, who was the U11 Champion at the World Youth in 2011. He is also the youngest American player to ever defeat a International Master, 2011, and Grandmaster, 2012, in a classical rated game. Liang won the World Youth Championship again in 2013, that time playing in the U10 section.

Liang broke the record of youngest American to ever earn an IM norm in 2014, and the very next year broke the record of youngest American to earn the IM title. Liang still holds the record for the latter. When he achieved his Grandmaster title after the 2017 Chicago Open, Liang became the tenth youngest in the world to do so. He was also the US Junior Champion that year, which qualified him for last year’s US Championship. In 2018, Liang once again took the US Junior Champion title qualifying him for this year’s tournament.

Grandmaster Lenderman’s chess career began in Brooklyn, New York when he was four years old. He began to learn the game of chess, and then, by the time he finished high school, he had lead his team to four straight national titles. In 2008, Lenderman used small victories throughout the US Chess Grand Prix to secure him the victory overall. He took first place again the following year. He also won the 2009 Atlantic Open and co-championed the 2019 US Open, as well.

Lenderman has continued to take championship after championship. He won the International Bavarian Chess Championship in 2014. In 2015, he was on the US team to the World Chess Team Championship where he took home a gold medal for the second board with a score of five out of seven. He also won the World Open that same year with a score of seven out of nine. Lenderman had a brilliant performance in the Isle of Man tournament in 2017, where he had a performance rating over 2750.

Akobian began learning chess in Mongolia, where the winters were so harsh that his father forbade him and his sister from going outside. Instead, his father taught Akobian chess. Akobian knew from the beginning that he was different from the other chess players around him, and realized that he would do whatever it took to become a Grandmaster. He did just that, and achieved his GM title when he was twenty years old. After receiving the Samford Chess Fellowship, Akobian won three World Open tournaments, in 2002, 2004, and 2007. He was also the 2003 US Junior Champion. Akobian was then featured on MTV’s “True Life” documentary in the episode “I’m a Genius.” In 2014, Akobian was the runner-up US Champion, having lost to Gata Kamsky in the rapid tiebreak.

Akobian admires and mirrors the style of former World Champion Tigran Petrosian. Akobian is an excellent positional player, who follows in the footsteps of Petrosian with his expertise in the French Defense,  one of Petrosian’s most popular openings as Black.

Youngest American GM having achieved the title at 13 years, 10 months, and 27 days; 2012 World Youth U12 Champion; Youngest ever American Continental Champion, 2017.

This American chess prodigy holds some of the top records in the United States. He was the 2012 World U12 Champion and another member of the Young Stars program. He received training from the legendary Garry Kasparov and Grandmaster Alexander Chernin. He became the youngest American Expert level player, and Grandmaster and still holds both titles today. He achieved his GM title at 13 years, 10 months, and 27 days old, which also puts him in the top ten youngest Grandmasters to achieve the title in the world.

During his last 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 and was the youngest one to do so in history. He is the second highest rated Junior in the United States, and fifth highest in the world.

Since being taught how to play chess by his father at the age of three, Robson has had many impressive results. He was the Supernationals champion in 2005 and then placed top ten in the World Youth Chess Championship starting in 2004 continuing until 2007. In 2007, he broke Nakamura’s record of youngest IM-elect ever after achieving his final GM norm at the University of Texas, Dallas (UTD) GM invitational tournament. He achieved his Grandmaster title in 2009, after winning the Pan-American Youth Championship that year. The same year, he was the US Junior Champion, one of the youngest to ever win the US Junior Championship. He also broke Nakamura’s record of youngest American Grandmaster by achieving it at 14 years, 11 months, and 16 days.

Robson took second place in the 2014 Millionaire Chess Championship, and then again at the 2015 US Championships. Robson was a member of the Webster University SPICE Chess team, and has helped that team to several national titles, three in a row, throughout his time there.

In 2015, Jeffery became the third youngest player to achieve the Grandmaster title at age 14. He came in second at the US Junior Closed Chess Championship in July 2015 which qualified him for his first appearance in the US Chess Championships. By 2016 he entered the top 10 players in the world under age 20, and is currently in the top 60 overall.

Dominguez is a five time Cuban national champion, who switched federations as of December 2018. This super grandmaster’s career features stunning results like that of the victory in Barcelona. He won the Magistral Ciutat de Barcelona tournament, with a performance rating over 2900. Two years later, he won the Capablanca Memorial Tournament, and then became the 2008 World Blitz Champion ahead of top grandmasters like Peter Svidler and Alexander Grischuk.

He went on the win the FIDE Grand Prix in Thessaloniki, Greece while earning thirty rating points in the process. Most recently, Dominguez was part of the team that helped prepare Fabiano Caruana for the 2018 Candidates tournament and then the World Championship match that followed. He is currently the fourth highest rated player in the US, with a FIDE rating of 2739.

Shankland won the US Chess Championship in 2018 and was the California State Champion in 2008, 2009, and 2011. He won Bronze at the U18 Championship and was Junior Champion in 2010. He represented the US in the 41st Chess Olympiad in Tromsø and won a gold medal for best individual performance. In the 42nd Olympiad in Baku, he helped the US win team gold for the first time in 40 years.