2018 Winter Chess Classic

Aram Hakobyan started playing chess when he was 6 years old and earned his Grandmaster title in 2018. Since then, he has achieved much in the chess world, such as winning the Armenian Youth Championships five times in different age groups (10,12,14,18), becoming World Chess Champion in U12 in 2012, earning vice-champion of the European Chess Championship U14 years in 2014, bronze medalist of the of the European U14 Championship in 2015, and bronze medalist in U16 team Olympiad in 2016. Other accolades Aram has been awarded include "The World's Young Stars" -  3rd prize for first and second rounds of European Junior Grand Prix in 2017, 2nd place in the category "Best junior player "The World's Young Stars" - 1st prize of third round of European Junior Grand Prix in 2018, and European individual chess championship - Best junior player U18, also in 2018.

Zaven is an Armenian Grandmaster, earning the title in 2006. He won the 2005 European Youth Chess Championship for under-16, followed by the 2006 World Junior Chess Championship. His other chess achievements include winning the Russian Cup Final after defeating Artyom Timofeev in the second game of the final in 2010, earning second in the Armenian Chess960 Championship in 2012, and sharing first with Alexander Kovchan and Sipke Ernst in the Groningen Chess Festival, also in 2012. In 2016, Zaven won the Armenian Chess Championship for the first time.

Yuniesky Quezada Pérez is a Cuban chess grandmaster. He was the fourth Cuban chess player to surpass the Elo 2600 rating mark in July 2010. His chess achievements include winning the Cuban Chess Championship in 2008 and 2011 and, in April 2015, winning the Philadelphia Open, defeating runner up Ioan-Cristian Chirila.

Sam Sevian is an American chess prodigy. He holds the record for the youngest ever United States Grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 10 months, and 27 days. He also holds the record for the youngest ever United States International Master at 12 years and 10 months; and the youngest National Master in USCF history at 9 years, 11 months, and 23 days. In 2012, he became World Champion in the U12 category. He achieved a 2500 FIDE rating during the Saint Louis GM Norm Invitational tournament with an impressive outcome of 7.5/9.

Sevian made his first appearance at the U.S. Chess Championships in Saint Louis, Missouri in 2013 as the youngest ever participant. There, Sevian placed in a shared 14th position out of 24 total players with a score of 4/9, beating out several grandmasters. He returned for another U.S. Chess Championships in 2015 and shared fifth place ahead of several well-known names in the chess world including Wesley So, a world top ten ranked player. His overall performance in the championship earned him a spot in the 2015 Chess World Cup.

Aleksandr Shimanov became an International Master in 2007. Two years later, he received his grandmaster title when he was just 17 years old. In 2013, he tied for 1st-3rd at the Nakhchivan Open with Gadir Guseinov and Igor Kurnosov.  GM Shimanov typically favors the Queen’s Pawn Game and Salv openings for white, and Caro-Kann and King’s Indian openings for black.

Alexander Motylev is a Russian chess grandmaster, former European champion, and former Russian champion. He is also Sergey's Karyakin trainer and one of the coaches of the Russian Men’s national team. In 1995, he won Russian Junior Championship under 16 and, in 1997, for the under 18 level. Motylev was the runner-up in the 1998 European Junior Chess Championship, which was won by Levon Aronian. Then, in 2001, he won the Russian Chess Championship in Elista and played for the national team in the World Team Chess Championship, where he contributed to the team silver medal scoring 2/3. In 2006, he was the joint winner (first on tie-break) of the Corus B Tournament in Wijk aan Zee with Magnus Carlsen and, in June 2009, he won the 10th Karpov tournament (category 18, 2694) in Poikovsky, Russia. Other achievements for Motylev include sharing 2-3 places (2nd on tiebreak) with Lazaro Bruzon, behind Pentala Harikrishna, in the Corus B Tournament in Wijk aan Zee in 2012 and finishing second in the 14th edition of Poikovsky Karpov tournament (category 18, 2685) in 2013. Motylev also won the 2014 European Individual Championship in Yerevan, Armenia with 9/11 and a rating performance of 2872, the best performance in the event's history. Following this event in 2014, he took clear second place, behind Pavel Eljanov, in the B tournament of the Vugar Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, Azerbaijan. He also placed equal first (second on tiebreak) in the 2015 Russian Championship Higher League with 6.5/9 in Kaliningrad. Recently, in 2017, Motylev won the Russian Rapid Chess Championship in Sochi.

Sasikiran started playing chess at the age of 10 and became an IM in 1999 and GM in 2000. He was the second Indian after Ex-World Champion Vishy Anand to cross 2700. Sasikiran was honoured by Government of India with "Arjuna Award" (civilian honour) in 2002 for his exceptional performance. He has also been the Indian National champion for 4 times (1999, 2002, 2003 and 2012), Asian Individual (Classical) Champion in 2003 and holds the record for playing the highest number of chess games (more than 100) for India in the Olympiads. Sasikiran was instrumental in India winning the first ever Bronze Medal at 41st Olympiad at Tromso, Norway in 2014 and won the Individual Silver Medal on Board 3 for his performance in the same event. His other chess achievements include winning the European Club Cup in 2013 (for Novy Bor), becoming the first Indian to win the 52nd edition of the Prestigious "Capablanca Memorial" in 2017, and many other open tournaments around the world including the Rilton Cup and Benasque Open. Sasikiran joined the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) a Government of India undertaking and playing for them since 1999.

Robson has won seven national scholastic titles and finished in the top ten at each of the World Youth Chess Championships from 2004 to 2007. He also tied for first place in the 2005 and 2006 (U12 Boys, Silver on tiebreak) Pan American Youth Chess Championships. On July 16, 2009, he won the U.S. Junior Chess Championship, becoming one of the youngest champions ever. Robson played in his first World Cup in November 2009 in Russia and again in 2011. Robson has also won the Webster University - SPICE Cup Open in St. Louis in 2012, and he finished second in Millionaire Chess in Las Vegas in 2014, losing to Wesley So in the final round. Even more, Robson has played in many of the major open tournaments in the United States, including the U.S. Championships since 2007. When he qualified for the 2007 U.S. Championships, it made him the youngest player in the history of the event to participate.

Grandmaster Evgenij Miroshnichenko, often referred to as Miro, was born in Donetsk, Ukraine. He was introduced to the game of chess at 5 and started to attend his local chess club at 6. At the age of 19, Miro was awarded the International Master title and the Grandmaster title in 2002. He is a two time Ukrainian champion (2003 and 2008) and reached his highest world rank, 37, in 2007.  Miro has also worked as a coach and second to Sergey Karjakin, both Muzychuk sisters, and Anton Smirnov, to name a few. Miro has extensive experience doing commentary, which includes two chess olympiads (2012, 2016) and now as the Russian-speaking commentator for the 2018 Grand Chess Tour.

Hrant is a 29 year-old Armenia chess player who earned his Grandmaster title in 2008. He has won many prestigious tournaments including taking 2nd at the World Youth Championship under 18 in Batumi in 2006 and at the European Rapid Championship in 2015. Hrant has also won the European Blitz Championship in 2011, the London Chess Classic in 2013 and 2017, and other Open tournaments. He has also played on the Armenian national team, taking the European silver (1st result on board 4) and world Team bronze medal in 2015.