Natalia Pogonina is a Russian international grandmaster in chess, and one of the top rated women in the world. At the age of 24, she’s already made quite a name for herself since she burst onto the chess scene by winning the Russian Girls under-14 National Championship in 1998. She followed that victory [...]

Yury Shulman is an international grandmaster in chess, originally from what is now Belarus. He currently lives in the United States and, since moving to this country, has been one of the top American players. In 2001, he co-won the World Open, and in 2002 co-won the American Open. He won the [...]

Alexandra Kosteniuk is a young, female, international grandmaster in chess, most well known for her attempts to promote chess in the popular media.  Born and raised in Russia, she started playing chess at the age of 5, and, at the age of 9, became the female European Champion among girls under the age of 10.  [...]

Garry Kasparov is, perhaps, one of the best known names in chess.  Born in 1963 in what is today Azerbaijan, he started playing chess at the age of 5, and became the Soviet Junior Champion by the age of 12, the youngest player ever to do so.  At the age of 17, he became the [...]

Maurice Ashley was awarded the coveted International Grandmaster title in 1999 by FIDE.  Most of his adult work with chess has been to promote chess to youth, as evident by the fact that he has coached two different youth teams from Harlem to national championships.  In 1999, he opened the Harlem Chess Center, and was [...]

Viswanathan Anand is an Indian International Grandmaster, and the current World Chess Champion, as of 2009.  He is affectionately known as “Vishy” to his supporters and friends.  He was taught to play chess at the age of 6 by his mother, and won the title of International Master at the age of 15.  He became [...]

Susan Polgar, also known by her given name of Zsuzsanna, is a female Hungarian-American chess player, and the first woman to earn the title of International Grandmaster.  She and her siblings were the product of her father’s social experiment, believing that he could make his children into geniuses by proper education.  At the age of [...]