Irina Borisivna Krush is an American chess Grandmaster. She is the only woman to earn the GM title while playing for the United States. Krush is an eight-time U.S. Women's Champion and a two-time Women's American Cup Champion.
Christopher Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess grandmaster, streamer, YouTuber, five-time U.S. Chess Champion, and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 15, the youngest American at the time to do so. With a peak rating of 2816, Nakamura is the tenth-highest-rated player in history.
Jennifer Shahade is an American chess player, poker player, commentator and writer. She is a two-time United States Women's Champion and has the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster. Shahade is the author of the books Chess Bitch, Play Like a Girl, and most recently, Chess Queens, and co-author of Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess. From 2018 to 2023, she was the Women's Program Director at US Chess. She is also a MindSports Ambassador for PokerStars and a board member of the World Chess Hall of Fame in Saint Louis.
Alejandro Tadeo Ramírez Álvarez is a Costa Rican-American chess Grandmaster and commentator. At the age of 15, he became the first Central American to achieve the title of Grandmaster and was the second youngest chess grandmaster in the world at the time. Born in Costa Rica, he represented Costa Rica before switching to the United States in 2011.
The United States Chess League (USCL) was the only nationwide chess league in the United States for eleven years. In 2016 the League announced it would be opened to cities from around the world, moved to the website chess.com, and renamed the Professional Rapid Online Chess League.
Cheating in chess is a deliberate violation of the rules of chess or other behaviour that is intended to give an unfair advantage to a player or team. Cheating can occur in many forms and can take place before, during, or after a game. Commonly cited instances of cheating include: collusion with spectators or other players, use of chess engines during play, rating manipulation, and violations of the touch-move rule. Many suspiciously motivated practices are not comprehensively covered by the rules of chess.
Wesley Barbossa So is a Filipino and American chess grandmaster and three-time U.S. Chess Champion. He is also a three-time Philippine Chess Champion. On the March 2017 FIDE rating list, he was ranked number two in the world and had an Elo rating of 2822, making him the fifth-highest-rated player in history.
Gregory Shahade is an International Master of chess. He founded the New York Masters and the U.S. Chess League. He is a former member of the executive board of the United States Chess Federation, to which his younger sister Jennifer Shahade was hired as the executive editor-in-chief of the website. Greg had a distinguished scholastic career, highlighted by three national chess championships: tying for first in the 1993 National Junior High School Championship and the 1996 National High School Championship, and winning the 1996 United States Junior Open outright. He was the leading scorer for Julia R. Masterman School in 1996, when they won their first of four National High School Chess Championships. He won the prestigious Samford Fellowship, awarded by the U.S. Chess Trust to the top U.S. prospect under the age of 25, in 1999. The fellowship granted Shahade approximately $25,000 to train for and play in top tournaments. He was also renewed for it in 2000 and subsequently scored his first Grandmaster norm at the Bermuda Closed in January 2001. Since 2006, he has held 30 sessions of the US Chess School, where the nation's top young chess talents are invited to train under the instruction of various Grandmasters. He was the founder and Commissioner of the U.S. Chess League, which folded in 2016.
Vinay Subrahmanya Bhat is an American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM)
Ildar Ibragimov is a Russian chess player. He was ranked No. 72 in January 2000 with a rating of 2611, while his peak rating of 2637 was achieved in April 2006.
Robert Lee Hess is an American chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM) in 2009. In May 2012, his FIDE rating was 2635, fifth in the United States. Hess is a commentator for Chess.com, covering events such as the World Chess Championship and Candidates Tournament. He also streams chess content on his Twitch channel GMHess, which has 73,000+ followers.
The London Chess Classic is a chess festival held at the Olympia Conference Centre, West Kensington, London. The flagship event is a strong invitational tournament between some of the world's top grandmasters. A number of subsidiary events cover a wide range of chess activities, including tournaments suitable for norm and title seekers, junior events, amateur competitions, simultaneous exhibitions, coaching, and lectures.
Samuel Sevian is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he earned the grandmaster title at the age of 13 years, 10 months and 27 days, making him the youngest ever American grandmaster at the time. He also broke all US age records in reaching the titles of National and International Master.
Vladimir Vasilyevich Fedoseev is a Russian chess grandmaster playing for Slovenia. He competed in the Chess World Cup in 2015, 2017, 2021 and 2023.
Chess.com is an internet chess server and social networking website. The site has a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available for accounts with subscriptions. Live online chess can be played against other users in daily, rapid, blitz or bullet time controls, with a number of chess variants available. Chess versus a chess engine, computer analysis, chess puzzles and teaching resources are offered.
Daniel Michael "Danny" Rensch is an American chess International Master, event organizer, lecturer and commentator. He holds the Arizona state record for youngest national master, at the age of 14. He is the president of American Chess Events LLC and Chief Chess Officer of Chess.com.
Women represent a small minority of chess players at all ages and levels. Female chess players today generally compete in a mix of open tournaments and women's tournaments, the latter of which are most prominent at or near the top level of women's chess and at youth levels. Modern top-level women's tournaments help provide a means for some participants to be full-time professional chess players. The majority of these tournaments are organized by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and revolve around the World Championship cycle, which culminates in a match to decide the Women's World Chess Champion. Beyond those events, among the most prominent women's tournaments are women's and girls' national and continental championships.
Hans Moke Niemann is an American chess grandmaster and Twitch streamer. He became a FIDE Grandmaster on January 22, 2021. In July 2021, he won the World Open chess tournament in Philadelphia. He first entered the Top 100 Junior players list at position 88 on March 1, 2019, and as of September 2023, he was the eighth-highest-rated Junior in the world. His peak global ranking was No. 31, in May 2023.
The 2017 PRO Chess League Season was the inaugural season of the PRO Chess League. It started on January 11, 2017, and ended March 26. 48 teams participated, twelve of which had previously participated in the USCL. After the end of the first season, the St. Louis Arch Bishops defeated the Norway Gnomes, thus securing their first title. The PCL has a total prize fund of $50,000 compared to a prize fund of $10,000 in the USCL.
The 2018 PRO Chess League Season was the second season of the PRO Chess League. It began on January 17 and ended on April 8 with the Armenia Eagles defeating the Chengdu Pandas to claim their first title. This season introduced new qualifications to join the league and an all-star game.
