Sam Sevian was awarded the titles of FIDE Master in 2012; International Master in 2013; Grandmaster in 2014. He was World U12 Champion in 2012 and World #1 U14 from April - November 2014 (1), (2)
Preamble
Sevian was the world's youngest Grandmaster, the youngest US American ever to become a Grandmaster at the time he earned the title, and the first born in 2000. Sevian gained the title on 23 November 2014 at the age of 13 years, 10 months 28 days when he defeated Andrei Gorovets in the St Louis GM Invitational to lift his live rating to over 2500, thereby fulfilling the last criterion for the GM title.
Under the tutelage of his coach, Armenian IM Andranik Matikozian, Sevian became the youngest US Expert ever at the age of 8 years, 2 months, and on December 19, 2010, he became the youngest National Master in USCF history at the age of 9 years, 11 months and 23 days, breaking the record previously held by Nicholas Nip by 3 days. He learned chess when he was 5 and started competing a few months later in 2006.
Championships
<Youth> In 2010, Sevian scored 8/11 placing =5th in the World U10 Championship in Halkidiki. He won the World U12 Championship in Maribor with 9/11, winning on tiebreak ahead of compatriot Cameron Wheeler, FM Zhu Yi and Saveliy Golubov respectively (this effort earning him his FM title). In June, he came second at the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship behind Daniel Naroditsky.
<National> He competed in the United States Championship (2013), and is the youngest competitor ever in the the national championship. Two years later he scored 5.5/11 to place =5th at the US Championship (2015), adding a hefty 17 points to his rating and qualified to play in the next World Cup.
<World> Sevian qualified to play for the World Cup (2015) through his result at the US Championship 2015 (see above). However, he bowed out of the contest when he lost his first round match to Azeri GM Teimour Radjabov.
Standard Tournaments
Sevian played his first tournament in Orlando on August 12, 2006. He commenced in FIDE rated competitions when he was 8 years old, beginning with the 2009 CalChess Labor Day Championships in San Francisco. He starting accumulating serious rating points in 2009 at the Western States Open in Reno, Nevada and the 45th Annual American Open, and also recorded his first results (draws) against titled masters such as FMs Michael Feinstein and Eugene Yanayt. In early 2010 he competed in and made steady progress in local tournaments in California; although he only scored 2/5 in the NorCal Open, he scored his first win against a master, FM Kenan Zildzic, and his first draw against an IM, Emory Tate, soon followed by a win against FM Richard Kelson and a draw against IM Walter Shipman. January 2011 saw Sevian score his first win against a grandmaster, Mauricio Flores Rios, at the 2nd Annual Golden State Open. In April 2011 he scored a draw against GM Sergey Kudrin at the 11th Annual Reno Far West Open.
2012 opened with an auspicious 4.5/9 for the 11 year old in the Northern California International, adding 32 points to his March 2012 rating, including a boost from his draw against Polish GM Bartlomiej Macieja. Further solid results in the 19th Annual Western Class Championships (3/5) held in Agoura Hills, California, in the 17th, 19th and 20th Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitationals held in Los Angeles in mid-2012 boosted his ranking to the top of the world's U12 list, the latter two adding IM norms to his resume. A further solid result in the 2nd(!) Metropolitan Chess FIDE International in August 2012 where he scored 5.5/9 including a win over US GM Melikset Khachiyan consolidated his hold on the top U12 ranking. Then came outright 2nd (behind his trainer IM Andranik Matikozian) with 6/9 at the 22nd Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitational in LA in October, further boosting his stocks, and his rating. After winning the World U12 championship, he followed up with a win at the 23rd Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitational held in Los Angeles with an impressive 6/9, picking up 42 points for that event alone - he was the lowest rated player in this category 8 event and picked up his 3rd IM norm, missing a GM norm by the narrowest of margins. However, 2012 finished on an anti-climactic note for him when he scored only 3.5/8 at the 22nd North American Open held in Las Vegas.
2013 started with a relatively sparse 3/9 at the 24th Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitational, causing him to shed 10 ratings points, although his 4.5/9 at the 2013 UT Dallas Spring FIDE Open recovered most of these lost points. 2014 started with a rating neutral 5.5/9 at the Bay Aread International at Santa Clara, but was followed by a dynamic 6.5/9 (including wins over GMs Bartlomiej Macieja, Alexander Shabalov and Alexander Stripunsky, placing outright 2nd and earning a GM norm. (1) A solid 5/9 at the 2014 UT Dallas Spring FIDE Open underwritten by Turner Construction was followed by an equally solid =3rd with 6.5/9 at the 8th Annual Philadelphia Open. In May 2014, Sevian won the 2014 CCSCSL Invitational GM event with 6.5/9, winning his 2nd GM norm and came through with his 3rd GM norm at the 3rd Annual Washington International in August where he scored 6/9. Soon afterwards he played in the US Masters in North Carolina, and scored 4.5/8, adding a few rating points and inching him closer to his GM title.
Sevian gained his GM title with effect from 23 November 2014, when he reached a live rating of over 2500 at the St Louis Invitational GM Tournament. His application for the title had previously been lodged with FIDE. (3)
In January 2015, Sevian was invited to play in the annual Tata Steel Challengers (2015). After a poor start where he lost his first two games, he performed impressively to scoring 7.5/13 and place =5th to add 20 points to his rating. He had an impressive outing at the UTDallas versus USA Junior All Stars in March, scoring 6.5/10 and adding nearly 17 rating points to his card. An undefeated 6.5/9 (including +1 =4 against his GM opponents) at the 24th Annual Chicago Open added a further 13 points to his rating.
In 2017, Sevian won the Chicago Open in May and also qualified(4) for the World Cup later that year.
Rating and Ranking
Sevian's initial rating was 2060 in November 2009 while he was still eight years old.
References and Sources
(1) http://www.uschess.org/content/view... and http://www.saintlouischessclub.org/... shows St Louis results = GM norm; (2) http://mdchess.com/index.php?option...; (3) http://ratings.fide.com/title_appli...; (4) http://www.fide.com/images/stories/...
Wikipedia article: Samuel Sevian; Photo: http://www.bidmonfa.com/sevian_samu...
Kibitzing
