2018 U.S. Chess Championship

* All times listed are CDT (GMT-5).

U.S. Championships Prize Fund

In addition, the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis will sponsor the “$64,000 Fischer Bonus Prize”. Any player that finishes the U.S. Championships field with a perfect 11-0 score shall be awarded an additional $64,000.

Format Summary

1. Prompt Arrival: Players are expected to be at the board before each round begins.
2. No Draws: Players may not mutually agree to a draw in less than 30 moves.
3. Electronics: No electronics are allowed in the playing area.
4. Time Control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an additional 30 seconds (increment) per move starting from move 1.
5. Notation: Players are required to keep accurate notation throughout each game.
6. Playoffs: A combination of rapid, blitz and armageddon games shall be used to break any tie for 1st place.

Live Broadcast Commentators

GM Yasser Seirawan
2677 (USCF) | 2620 (FIDE)
4-time U.S. Champion

Few names in U.S. Chess are more recognizable than Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan. A four-time U.S. Champion and former World Championship contender, Seirawan was the dominant force in American chess in the 1980s.

Born in Damascus, Syria in 1960, Seirawan’s family immigrated to the United States when he was 7 years old and settled in Seattle. He picked up the game of chess at age 12 and honed his skills playing against top players in the area, including Latvian-born master Viktors Pupols and six-time Washington State Champion James Harley McCormick.

At 13, just a year after learning the game, Seirawan became the Washington State Junior Chess Champion, and by 1979 he won the World Junior Championship.

Seirawan went on to dominate the American chess scene, winning the U.S. Championship title in 1981, 1986 and 1989. He claimed the U.S. Championship title once again in 2000 and continued to play in major world-class events, including serving 10 times as a member of the U.S. team at the World Chess Olympiad, until he announced his retirement in 2003.

Seirawan was lured out of retirement in 2011 to once again play in the U.S. Championship, which was held in Saint Louis. He cited the exciting developments of the Saint Louis chess scene as a contributing factor for his renewed interest in competitive chess.

“Yaz,” as he is commonly known, followed the 2011 U.S. Championship with a stunning performance at the 2011 World Team Championship, where he earned an individual silver medal for his performance on board four, defeating some of the best players in the world along the way.

Seirawan is a highly respected teacher, commentator and author and has written several books including Chess Duels, the 2010 Chesscafe.com’s book of the year. He is regularly featured as the Resident Grandmaster for the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis.

WGM Jennifer Shahade
2301 (USCF) | 2322 (FIDE)
2-time U.S. Women’s Champion

Jennifer Shahade is a chess champion, author, commentator, and poker player. For her the essentials of life involve chess and art. As an author of multiple chess books and writer for Chess Life, Shahade has communicated her passion for both to a broad audience, and has been a strong advocate for greater female participation in chess. Her over-the-board chess career has been just as successful. She is two-time U.S. Women’s Champion winning in 2002 and 2004.

Her first book, Chess Bitch: Women in the Ultimate Intellectual Sport (2005), intertwined autobiographical elements with the stories of great women chess champions, past and present. Shahade also co-authored Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess (2009). Shahade’s Play Like a Girl! Tactics by 9 Queens (2010) is the first book featuring solely combinations that are all executed by female chess champions.

Always a viewer favorite, Shahade returns to the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis to add her perspective to this year’s broadcast commentary.

GM Maurice Ashley

2459 (USCF) | 2440 (FIDE)
Millionaire Chess Organizer

Through chess, Maurice Ashley has not only made history as the first African-American International Grandmaster in 1999, but has translated his talents to others as a three-time national championship coach, two-time author, ESPN commentator, iPhone app designer, puzzle inventor and motivational speaker. Ashley now works as a Research Affiliate at MIT’s Media Lab to bring the benefits of chess and other classic games to a wider educational audience through the innovative use of technology.

He has traveled the world as an ardent spokesperson of the character-building effects of chess. Ashley’s book, “Chess for Success” (Broadway Books, 2005), crystallizes his vision of the many benefits of chess, particularly for at-risk youth, and he continuously spreads his message of living one’s dream to universities, businesses, chess clubs and non-profit organizations around the globe. His app, “Learn Chess! With Maurice Ashley,” has been sold in over 30 countries, and he has received multiple community service awards from city governments, universities and community groups for his work.

In the fall of 2011, Ashley toured six Caribbean nations to bring chess, books and technology to kids in the region. In 2015, Maurice announced a partnership with the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis and Ascension, Your Move Chess. This program supports after school chess in the Florissant-Ferguson School District alongside other schools in the Saint Louis area. Longer term, the goal is to expand the program on a national level.

Live Broadcast Commentators – Spanish

GM Alejandro Ramirez
2545 (USCF) | 2568 (FIDE)
U.S. Open Champion

Alejandro Ramirez has become a frequent face the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, through roles as both the Club’s Resident Grandmaster and as a player in the nation’s elite events. He currently serves as the chess coach for Saint Louis University and is recruiting its inaugural team to start play in Fall of 2016.

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 the last 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. His personal familiarity with both fields of the 2016 U.S. Championships, coupled with his outstanding, plain-talk understanding of the King’s game, makes Ramirez an outstanding commentating option for the live audience at the 2017 U.S. Chess Championships.

WIM Ivette Garcia Morales
2030 (URS) | 2014 (FIDE)
PanAmerican double gold medalist

Ivette Garcia Morales is a Woman International Master from Mexico. Ivette has a degree in physical education from Autonomous University of Chihuahua and she is currently pursuing her Master’s in management. While receiving her degree, she also coaches the university’s chess team. Ivette has represented her country in the last three World Chess Olympiads in Turkey (2012), Norway (2014), and Azerbaiyan (2016). She receive the bronze medal at the Pan American Under 20 Female in Asuncion, Paraguay, July 2014; was a double gold medalist and PanAmerican University Champion at Isla Margarita Venezuela, November, 2012; and double bronze medalist In the PanAmerican Youth Championship in Lima, Perú 2012. Outside of chess, Ivette is a member of the Chess.com team of streamers, owner and director of the Capablanca Chess Club of Chihuahua, columnist in the journal “Herald of Chihuahua” (Sports) and a television host of the “Chihuahua Program In Full” on channel 71. For the 2018 Grand Chess Tour, Ivette served as the co-commentator of the Spanish broadcast with GM Alejandro Ramirez. The Saint Louis Chess Club is excited to have Ivette back as part of the 2018 Spanish commentary streaming team for the U.S. Championships.

Live Audience Commentators

GM Robert Hess
2659 (USCF) | 2574 (FIDE)

Former U.S. Junior Champion

Robert Hess is a former U.S. Junior Champion, the 2010 Samford Award winner, the runner-up at the 2009 U.S. Championship, and a three-time member of the U.S. National team. After graduating with a degree in History from Yale University in 2015, he has continued to be involved with chess. He is a known chess analyst and commentator and was the coach of the U.S. Women’s team at the 2016 Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan. Outside of chess, Hess serves as Chief Operating Officer of The Sports Quotient, a statistically-based sports site he co-founded.

GM Eric Hansen
2629 (FIDE)
Canadian Open Champion

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 qualifing 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.