2019 Winter Chess Classic

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 World Champion 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.

Var 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 him chess. It was clear from the beginning that Var was extremely skilled in chess, and he soon decided to dedicate himself to becoming a Grandmaster. He did just that, achieving his GM title when he was twenty years old. After receiving the prestigious Samford Chess Fellowship, Var became a top player in the United States, winning the 2003 US Junior Chess Championship. Var also went on to win the World Open three times, sharing first in 2002 and winning outright in 2004 and 2007. In 2014, he was the runner-up US Champion, losing to Gata Kamsky in the rapid tiebreak.

Var admires and mirrors the style of former World Champion Tigran Petrosian. He is a strong 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.

In 2015, Jeffery became the third youngest player to achieve the Grandmaster title at age 14. He came in second at the U.S. Junior Closed Chess Championship in July 2015 which qualified him for his first appearance in the U.S. Chess Championships. By 2016 he entered the top 10 players in the world under age 20. Recently, Jeffery has shattered the 2700 rating barrier, with a current rating of 2712. He continues to have impressive results such his run into the quarterfinals in the 2019 FIDE World Cup, where he upset impressive grandmasters like Anish Giri and Jan-Krzystzof Duda.

Tigran is currently a top 20 Armenian Grandmaster. He achieved both his second and third Grandmaster norms last year. This is his first invitational tournament at the Saint Louis Chess Club.