2018 Summer Chess Classic

WGM Tatev Abrahamyan started playing chess at eight after her father took her to the Chess Olympiad games in 1996. There she met Grandmaster Judit Polgar, arguably the greatest woman player of all time and the only woman in the tournament. "I was in complete awe," Tatev said. "My first thought was, 'I want to be just like her.'" She was soon playing competitively among the top players her age in Europe and has played in the U.S. Women's Chess Championship eight times.

Tatev is a formidable competitor. At the 2010 U.S. Women's Championship she played her heart out to a fantastic 7/9 score, which would usually be enough to net first place, but actually put her in a tie for second place, half a point behind Irina Krush. Tatev's strong play and fighting qualities in 2010 earned her the 9 Queens/Goddesschess Fighting Chess award, which was selected by former Women's World Champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk.

At the 2011 U.S. Women's Championship, Tatev turned in a remarkable performance, falling just short to Anna Zatonskih in the playoff finals to finish in second place. That same year, Abrahamyan graduated from California State University Long Beach with a double major in psychology and political science. These days she is a regular face of the Saint Louis Chess Club commentary and journalism crew.

Dinara started to play chess at the age of 5. Since then, she has found a lot of success in her chess career. Her achievements include winning the World Youth Champion under 14, 18; winning the World Junior Champion under 20; becaming the Asian Women Vice-Champion, bronze medalist at the Asian Indoor Games; she is a multiple champion of Kazakhstan; and she is a member of the National Team. Currently she is 17th in the World women ranking list. Outside of chess, Dinara is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Cemil Can is a 20-year-old Grandmaster from Turkey. His current FIDE rating is 2530. He is currently a sophomore at the Saint Louis University studying Computer Engineering. He has a unique achievement of winning the European Youth Championships for five times. Additionally, he has represented Turkey in the 2012 Istanbul Chess Olympiad.

Sergey Matsenko was born in Chelyabinsk, Russia. He is a GM, with a FIDE rating of 2560. He has two bachelor degrees in Law and Engineering from South Ural State University. He is currently pursuing a master degree in Industrial engineering at Texas Tech.

Vladimir has been a Grandmaster since 2013. He shared 1-2 place in the Wisconsin International Chess Festival 06/2017. Other achievements include winning the 2017 U.S. Masters Championship and first place in 53rd Annual American Open 2017. Vladimir was also part of the winning team that won the President’s Cup, the Final Four of College Chess competition, with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Chess Team 2018.

Josh was born and raised in New Hampshire, where he started playing tournament chess at the age of six.  He was State Champion of New Hampshire three times and Northern California twice. Friedel participated in six U.S. Championships, tying for 4th in 2008.  In 2009, Josh won the Edmonton International with 7/9 as well as the Toronto Open with a perfect 5/5 score. He has also won or tied for first in numerous open tournaments across the United States, including the Pan Am, Eastern, Saint Louis, National, and American Opens.  Friedel was the 2013 U.S. Open Champion. He is also the current North American Open Champion, his second win at that event. Josh currently resides in a suburb of Milwaukee, where he divides his time between playing tournaments and teaching.

Alejandro Ramirez has become a frequent face the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis as he transplanted from Texas and now lives and works in Saint Louis. Ramirez was inspired by the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer when he was four years old. He became FIDE Master at the age of 9, an International Master at 13, and earned his Grandmaster title by the age of 15. That achievement set Ramirez as the first Centro-American to earn the elite title and, at the time, the second youngest grandmaster. A competitor in three U.S. Championships, Ramirez displayed some of his finest chess in May 2013, when he pushed reigning champion Gata Kamsky to a playoff for the national title. He drew the first two playoff games with Kamsky before losing an Armageddon game where he had 19 minutes and 45 seconds against Kamsky's 45 minutes. Ramirez studied video game design at the University of Texas at Dallas, earning a master’s degree in Arts & Technology, and he now currently serves as an editor for the popular chess news website ChessBase. Ramirez expertise has made him the natural selection for the new Saint Louis University chess team head coach position. The team made it to the final four of the Pan-American games in its first year. Along with coaching chess, Ramirez is a regular broadcast commentator in both English and Spanish for the Chess Club and Scholastic Center.

Andrey is a Russian Grandmaster. Some of his greatest chess achievements include winning the 2016 U.S. Chess Masters in Greensboro, tying for first (two-way tie) in both Wisconsin Open 2017 and Philadelphia Open 2017, tying for second place in World Open 2017, and, lastly, being a member of the winning team, UTRGV, of the U.S. College Chess Championship 2018. Even more, he has won the Golden State Open 2015 (first place 3-way tie), Sunshine Orlando Open 2017 (2-way tie), and Dayton Open 2017 (2-way tie).

Kamil started playing chess with his grandfather when he was 5 years old. After showing some interest to the game, his parents decided to register him for the chess classes. Kamil became a Grandmaster in 2013. His biggest achievements include: winning a gold medal in World Youth Chess Championship (U16) in Chalkidiki (Greece) in 2010; winning a gold medal in the European Youth Chess Championship in Fermo (Italy) in 2009; winning a silver medal in World Youth Chess Championship (U14) in Antalya (Turkey) in 2009; and receiving 1st place in London Chess Classic in 2014. Kamil has also won many medals in Polish Youth Chess Championship individually and with the team. He won the European Team Chess Championship 3 times with the team. Even more, Kamil took a 4th place medal for individual in the Polish Chess Championship in 2013 in Chorzow which was his best performance in this tournament so far. In 2017, he came to the U.S. to begin study in UTRGV in Brownsville and joined a chess team. In 2018, the team won the National Collegiate Championship.