2019 Winter Chess Classic

Aleksey  is from Barnaul, Russia. Aleksey  Sorokin started playing chess at the age of 8.   In 2016, he took 3rd place in U16 Youth European Championship.  In 2017, at the age of 17, he won the Russian U20 Chess Championship.  In the December 2018, Aleksey took 3rd place in the final of the Russian Cup.  In January of 2019, he moved to the United States to attend Texas Tech University at Lubbock on a chess scholarship; he is currently majoring in Computer Science.

Federico Perez Ponsa became GM in 2011, at the age of 17. Since then, he has represented Argentina in 3 Olympiads: 2014, 2016, and 2018. During that span, he also won numerous tournaments such as Mercosur Masters in 2016 and Legislatura Cup in 2018. In 2017, Perez Ponsa became the Buenos Aires Chess Champion, then finished 2nd in the Argentine Chess Championship shortly after.

Oparin became a Grandmaster at the age of 16, after he won the 2013 Trieste Open to achieve his final GM norm. A year later, He won the 2014 Russian Junior Championship. In 2016, Oparin won the Russian Higher League, which qualified him for Superfinal of the Russian Chess Championship.

Justin started to play chess when he was seven years old. In 2015, just three years after the start of his chess career, he became a USCF National Master. He has previously played well in Saint Louis, winning the 2017 Saint Louis Invitational after defeating IM Torres Rosas and scoring his first IM norm. Justin then went on to score a second IM norm at the 2018 World Open and came back to Saint Louis to score his third and final IM norm by winning the IM section of the Saint Louis Invitational. Besides chess, Justin enjoys math and music.

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.

Melik received his IM title in 1994. In 2001, he moved to the U.S. In 2006, he received his Grandmaster title. His best achievements include playing in the 1996 Olympiad in Yerevan Armenia and the 1997 World Team Championship (for Armenian Team). Melik has been a professional coach since 1990, training even super GM Levon Aronian from 1991-1997. He also coached talented youths in Armenia before he left, including GM T.Petrosian, GM T.Gharamian, GM A.Pashikian,and many others. After moving to the U.S., Melik has played in many prestigious events, including several U.S. Championships. He had his best result in the 2007 U.S. Championship. In 2010, he was invited to coach the U.S. Women’s National Team. Currently, he is well known as a coach on www.chess.com.