The Field

Liem was the 2013 World Blitz Chess Champion and Under-14 World Youth Chess Champion in July 2005. He is currently the #1 ranked player in Vietnam. Liem is a valuable asset to the Vietnam Chess team and in the 2012 Chess Olympiad he helped Vietnam place No. 7 overall - the highest ever for Vietnam.

Grandmaster Robson won the 2012 Webster university SPICE cup open, placed second at the 2015 U.S. Championships, and is currently the sixth highest rated player in the U.S. with a FIDE rating of 2649 (URS 2620). Born in Guam, Robson and his family moved to Florida when he was still a toddler.  It was in Florida where he learned to play chess when he was just three years old. From 2004 to 2007, Robson finished in the top 10 at the World Youth Championships. He won the Super- Nationals in 2005, first place in the 2005 and 2006 Pan-american Youth Championships, the 2009 U.S. Junior Championship, and the 2009 world Team Championship.  In 2008, Ray won his first major tournament at the Miami open, and later that year broke Hikaru Nakamura’s record by becoming the youngest American GM (14 years, 11 months and 16 days). Robson graduated from Webster University, where he won the 2012 SPICE Cup Open, and helped the Webster team win three consecutive National titles.

Armenian born American Grandmaster Akobian earned his Grandmaster status at the age of 20.  He was the US Junior Champion in 2003, the winner of World Open in 2002, 2004, and 2007, and helped the US win the Silver Medal at the 2009 World Team Championship.G

Var’s childhood in Mongolia had such harsh winters that his father forbade him and his sister Armine from playing outside.  He taught them chess, which fascinated the young Akobian. “From the very beginning,” Var says, “I was different from the other chess kids.  It was never just a game for me. I always wanted to be a Grandmaster, and knew that I would do what it takes.” As a teenager living in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia,  Akobian spent his days on chess and soccer. His teachers encouraged him to focus on chess, so much that Var says: “If I went to high school in here [in the U.S], I never could have spent so much energy on chess.”

In 2002, a year after immigrating to the U.S., he earned the Samford Chess Fellowship.  The Fellowship grant, which allowed the young Var to study and improve his chess, yielded quick results with a tie for first at the 2002 World Open and First Place at the Irme Koenig GM invitational.  The following year, he won the 2003 U.S. Junior Closed Championship, earned his GM Norms in June 2004, and then won the World Open for a second time.

An excellent positional player, GM Akobian admires the games and style of Armenian Hero, former World Champion Tigran Petrosian.  He admires him so much so that he became an expert in the French Defense, one of Petrosian’s most played openings with the black pieces. Var offers this advice for aspiring club players: “Don’t expect to see constant improvement. You build knowledge and work hard, and after a while you’ll see a big breakthrough.”

In 2007, Akobian was featured on MTV's True Life documentary series, in an episode titled "I'm a Genius".

Grandmaster Ilya Nyzhnyk started playing chess at the age of 5. He progressed very fast, and found early success by tying for 2nd at the World Under 12 Chess Championship in 2006. A year later in 2007, he earned his FIDE Master title. He cemented his success with a dominating victory at the Moscow Open Group B tournament by winning it with the score of 8.5 out of 9, and a performance of 2633. Since then, Nyzhnyk has won various international events such as European Youth Championship under 12 in 2007, and under 16 in 2008.  In the beginning of 2011, Nyzhnyk was officially awarded a title of Grandmaster, and continued improving by scoring top 3 in events such as Tata Steel Chess Tournament – GMC, Reykjavik Open 2011, and the Independence Cup-2011. In August 2014, Nyzhnyk began his study at Webster University. Since then, he has been a valuable member of the SPICE program and was on the team which won 5 consecutive PanAm InterCollegiate Chess Championships and 3 straight Final Four Championships. In addition to being a dynamic team player, Nyzhnyk also added to the success of Webster’s Chess Program by winning the U.S. Open, National Open, and 4 World Open titles, etc. He completed his undergraduate degree at Webster University in Computer Science in 2018, and is now working on his graduate degree in Cyber Security.

This charismatic and sporty Canadian became a Grandmaster in 2012 and has been a rising star in the chess community since. His internet presence on YouTube and Twitch, chessbrahs, involves himself and other titled players playing chess online for fun. Hansen’s online chess fame has given him many devoted fans and followers. In 2007, Hansen became a National Master, and placed second in the 2008 World U-16 Championships. Later that year he became a FIDE Master, and by 2010 he earned the International Master title. He tied for first in the 2011 Canadian Championship and won the 2012 Canadian Open. Other accomplishments in Hansen’s career include him qualifying for two World Cups and becoming a member of the Canadian National Team, representing Canada in the 2012 Olympiad and putting up another spectacular performance at the 2016 Olympiad. Hansen is also a member of the PRO Chess League, the Montreal Chess Brahs, who reached the final four in the first season.

Grandmaster Sergey Erenburg began playing chess when he was six years old and has ranked one of the top 20 players in the USA for the past decade. Sergey grew up in Russia, where he consistently placed as one of the top youth players before immigrating to Israel at the age of 15.

While living in Israel, Erenburg won the under 16, 18, and 20 Israeli championship titles, and proceeded with earning his GM title as a 20-year old in 2003. By the end of his 3-year military service, Erenburg won the Israeli Championship in 2004, followed by helping the Israeli National team to win the silver medal at the European Team Championship and making it to the 1/32 final at the World Cup in 2005. In 2006, Sergey decided to pursue an academic degree in the USA, not before taking 9th place at the Blitz World Championship in August 2006.

Erenburg earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Math and Finance from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) from 2007 through 2011, and during that time led the chess program to multiple national titles. Sergey went on to earn an additional master’s degree in Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. While working in the financial industry since 2013, Erenburg continued to play competitively and won countless major events, including National Chess Congress (2012 shared, 2014, 2016 (shared), 2018 shared), World Open (2013; shared), North American Open (2014 shared), Continental Class Championship (2012, 2016, both shared), and more.

Grandmaster Steingrímsson is an Icelandic chess grandmaster.  He won the World U12 Chess Championship in 1987.  In 1990, at the age of 15, he won the Icelandic Chess Championship, and became a 3 time winner with titles in 2011, 2015. He earned his international master title in 1994 and his grandmaster title in 2007. He is the No. 1 ranked Icelandic player as of October 2017.

Cristian is a four time Romanian Junior Championship winner. In April of 2015, Cristian won the World Youth Championship for 16 and under. In 2010 he received a full-ride scholarship to the University of Texas in Dallas and would go on to win the Millionaire Chess Open in the under 2550 rating group.

Chirila was also a part of Fabiano Caruana’s team that won the 2018 Candidates Tournament and followed him to the World Chess Championship match against Magnus Carlsen in London in November 2018. Chirila streams on twitch.tv on the channel "chesschilla" and he plays on chess.com under the pseudonym "TheCount."

Nikolas Theodorou is an 18 year old International Master from Greece. He is ranked 8th in Greece and has represented his country in many junior events. One of his most notable achievements is having won the Greek championship in his age group five times. He is currently residing in Saint Louis, majoring in Engineering Physics at SLU.