2018 Saint Louis Invitational

Matyas Marek

Title: 
International Master
Rating: 
2361
Federation: 
Czech Republic
Age: 
19
Status: 
Accepted
Bio: 

Matyas Marek is a 19 year old International Master from the Czech Republic. He has participated in many national and international chess tournaments. Matyas won the Czech National Championship in youth categories multiple times. On the international stage, he placed in the top 20 on multiple events including 5th place in the World Youth Chess Championship U18 in Greece 2015 and was part of the Czech national team that achieved the 3rd place on the European Youth Team Chess Championship U18. Matyas gained his IM title in 2016 and currently studies as a Computer Science major at UMBC, in Maryland, where he also plays for the university chess team.

Justin Wang

Title: 
FIDE Master
Rating: 
2377
Federation: 
USA
Age: 
13
Status: 
Accepted
Bio: 

Justin started to play chess when he was seven years old. He achieved the National Master title in 2015, and FIDE Master in 2018. Besides chess, Justin also likes math and music.

Dinara Dordzhieva

Title: 
Woman International Master
Rating: 
2340
Federation: 
Russia
Age: 
19
Status: 
Accepted
Bio: 

Dinara is originally from Elista, Russia, but now live and study in Moscow. She won the Russian youth championship among girls 5 times in different age groups (U10, U12, U16, U20) and was a bronze medalist at the U16 team Olympiad in Mongolia in 2015. In 2016, she took 3rd place in the World Junior Championship in India at the age of 17.  Recently, one month ago, Dordzhieva shared 1-2 places in Russian Women Rapid Championship in Sochi, taking the silver medal by Buchholz. At the same time, she won the bronze medal in Women Blitz Championship. In the team section (I was playing for 'SHSM Legacy Square Capita'), her team took 1 place in blitz, 2 place in rapid. At the 2018 Saint Louis Invitational, Dordzhieva hopes to get her last WGM norm.

Dmitry Gurevich

Title: 
Grandmaster
Rating: 
2396
Federation: 
USA
Age: 
62
Status: 
Accepted
Bio: 

Dmitry Gurevich is a Russian-American chess grandmaster. Gurevich emigrated to New York in 1980 and earned the grandmaster title three years later. Dmitry has tied or won the U.S. Open four times (in 1988, 1994, 2009, and 2012). Also, Gurevich has had especially good results at the National Open in Las Vegas, sharing first place on numerous occasions, e.g. 1985, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1996, 1997, and 2005. He has been a regular finisher at the top of North American events, as well as a regular participant in the U.S. Invitational Championships.
One of his students, Alex Fishbein, became a grandmaster. Other notable students include International Masters Eric Rosen, Sam Schmakel, Zhaozhi Li, National High School Champion David Peng, and 9 year old Expert Alice Lee.

Alina Bivol

Title: 
Woman Grandmaster
Rating: 
2403
Federation: 
Russia
Age: 
22
Status: 
Accepted
Bio: 

Alina Bivol is a 22 year old WGM from Russia. She was the champion of the Russian youth championship 3 times (2006, 2012 and 2015). In 2015, she became the vice-champion of the World’s Junior Championship. In 2016, Bivol was on the national team of Russia ( Vladimir Fedoseev, Pavel Ponkratov, Alina Bivol), which took the first place in the world university chess tournament. In 2017, she got the title of Woman Grandmaster. Just one month ago, she won Russian Women Chess Championship (blitz). Bivol is studying at the Moscow State Institute of Culture and is on the faculty of music and sings opera. She also has her own amateur rock-band named “Victor Perestukin,” and sometimes I writes chess articles.

Praveen Balakrishnan

Title: 
International Master
Rating: 
2409
Federation: 
USA
Age: 
16
Status: 
Accepted
Bio: 

IM Praveen Balakrishnan is the 2017 and 2018 Denker Champion and is also the current Virginia State Champion. Praveen also won the Cadet Championship in 2016. He also led his high school team, Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology of Virginia, to Championship titles in both blitz and main categories at the National High School Championships held in Columbus, Ohio this year. He won the individual blitz title in the event as well.  Currently, he is a junior at Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology.

Hans Niemann

Title: 
International Master
Rating: 
2439
Federation: 
USA
Age: 
15
Status: 
Invited
Bio: 

Hans started playing chess at a Leonardo School when he was 8 years old and living in the Netherlands.  He moved back to California at the end of 2012 and his rating quickly jumped from 1000 to 2200 in his two years there and he became the youngest player to ever win the long-standing Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club Tuesday Night Marathon (oldest US Chess Club founded in 1855).  Hans now lives in Connecticut. He achieved his FM title in early 2016, tied for first in the U18 category of the 2016 North American Youth Championship, won clear first at Super Nationals 2017 in the K-8 category, and earned his IM title and first GM norm in the summer of 2018.  Outside of chess, Hans is on his high school swim team and debate team and enjoys playing basketball, soccer, and tennis.

Advait Patel

Title: 
International Master
Rating: 
2467
Federation: 
USA
Age: 
16
Status: 
Accepted
Bio: 

Advait learned how to play chess when he was seven years old in India. He played his first tournament at eight and began to compete frequently after that. Advait won several scholastic tournaments including state championships, nationals, and eventually the Barber. He became an International Master in 2017 and has two GM norms. Advait won the 2017 North American U20 and got 2nd place in the 2018 U.S. Junior Championship.

Denes Boros

Title: 
Grandmaster
Rating: 
2442
Federation: 
Hungary
Age: 
30
Status: 
Accepted
Bio: 

Denes Boros is originally from Budapest, Hungary and now resides in Saint Louis, Missouri. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and currently plays individual and team events, while also coaching. Denes is also very active on social media (twitter), and as a chess journalist (American Chess Magazine, US Chess); he was a special commentator for the Carlsen-Karjakin World Championship Match held in New York for the New York Times. Boros  came third in the Hungarian Junior Championship at age of 14, and was U16 Olympic Champion in Denizli.

Robby Kevlishvili

Title: 
International Master
Rating: 
2451
Federation: 
Netherlands
Age: 
17
Status: 
Accepted
Bio: 

Robby Kevlishvili is a 17-year-old IM from the Netherlands. He started playing at the age of 4, and has since played a lot of European- and World Youth Chess Championships. His best performance was in 2013, at the World U12 championship, where he finished on a shared second place and won the gold medal in the Blitz championship. Robby’s best achievements include winning the Vandoevre Open tournament in France, and winning the Noteboom open memorial in the Netherlands, earlier in 2018. Robby currently holds 1 GM norm and hopes that his first trip to the United States will help his journey towards the GM title.

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