Kirk Ghazarian

Grandmaster Kirk Ghazarian of Trabuco Canyon, California, has, despite his youth, already qualified twice to play in the FIDE World Cup. Most recently he did it by tying for second in the 2023 Americas Continental Championships at the age of 17. Ghazarian was equal fourth at the 2023 World Junior Championship in Mexico City and tied for second in the 2025 Hastings International Chess Congress.

Kirk was a member of the All-America Chess Team from 2021-2024. Trivia alert – what U.S. Junior Championship participant has qualified to play in an Olympiad? The answer is Kirk who in 2015, while living in the U.S. Virgin Islands and only nine years old, earned a spot to play in the 2016 Chess Olympiad in Baku. He declined the invitation.