2019 U.S. Senior Championship

The Brooklyn native beat Bobby Fischer’s record for youngest chess master at age 13, and while this record is long gone, Joel has been a constant presence on the U.S. Chess scene ever since.  He won the U.S. Open Championship in 1985, secured his GM title in 1986, then won his first U.S. Championship in 1987.  He’d win two more, in 1997 and 2000.  Apart from his other numerous tournament successes, Joel is known for being the GM consultant for IBM’s Deep Blue, the computer that defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997.  Benjamin documents that experience as well as many others in his 2008 book “American Grandmaster:  Four Decades of Chess Adventures.”  Befitting his precocious nature, Joel was the youngest inductee into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 2008.  He currently resides in New Jersey with his wife and two children.  Joel is known for his offbeat openings and positional style, and he’ll no doubt be found nursing some small edges into full points.

Despite not being introduced to chess until his teens, Larry learned the game at a blistering pace, being one of the few players to skip the International Master title completely on his way to Grandmaster. Christiansen is a three-time U.S. Champion, winning the event in 1980, 1983, and most recently in 2002.  Larry has also had much success on the international chess scene, most notably winning the Linares super-tournament twice.  Famous for his attacking style, Christiansen has written two books on the subject:  “Storming the Barricades” in 2000 and its sequel, “Rocking the Ramparts,” in 2004.  He was inducted in the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 2008.  Larry currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and when he’s not teaching you’ll frequently find him binging one-minute games on the internet.  You can be sure he’ll bring his renowned tactical skills to the event.

“Shabba” originally hails from Riga, Latvia and quite fittingly has the same explosive style as Latvian World Champion Mikhail Tal.  Alex even had the privilege of studying with the wizard of Riga before moving to the United States in the early 1990s.  He took the U.S. chess scene by storm ever since, and he has won nearly every major tournament we have.  A four-time U.S. Champion, Alex took home the title in 1993, 1997, 2003, and 2007.  He’s also won the U.S. Open Championship a whopping seven times, and in 2002 tied for first in the prestigious Aeroflot Open in Moscow.  Shabba was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 2015.  He currently resides in PIttsburgh, and despite doing a fair share of teaching these days, he still travels to tournaments around the world on a regular basis.  If you like games with wild complications, Alex is definitely the one to follow.  As he himself has said, “If the position after my move becomes more complicated, then the game is going in the right direction!”