I was asked ealier today a very interesting question. Who is the strongest American born player in chess (male and female)?
The strongest male is obviously easy because it’s Bobby Fischer. But who would be the second strongest American born male player?
Some of the modern choices would be Robert Byrne, Joel Benjamin, Larry Christiansen, etc. In addition, would you classify Hikaru Nakamura as an American born since his mother is an American and he was born an American citizen? I would. What is your thought?
The interesting stuff now comes with the strongest American born female player.
IM Alisa Maric was born in 1970 in New York City, USA. She has dual citizenship of USA and Serbia and Montenegro. IM Maric’s highest FIDE rating since 2000 is 2468. She competed in a number of Women’s World Championships and Olympiad multiple times. She is one of the two winners of the Candidates Tournament (1990 Georgia). She is also the top rated woman player in Serbia and Montenegro.
Alisa has been the first board of Yugoslav Olympic team since 1986. She has earned two Olympic medals, one of which is individual for her result at the first board (Elista 1998).
In the first ten months of the year 2001 Alisa held big titles in all three competing categories: individual (being the third in the World), club (as the first board of Agrouniverzal, the Champion of Europe) and national (as the first board of Yugoslavia the vice champion of Europe). Another extraordinary achievement was at the World Champion Cycles. Five times in a row, from 1990 to 2000, she has always been among the best six in the World.
Alisa was the first board of the club that won three times the European Team Championships. In May 2001 Alisa Maric played for the chosen six in the “All Worlds’ Star Team” against China, in the spectacular match in Shanghai. This was the first such an event in the chess history. Alisa won some games against famous chess players including world champions (Anand, Zhu Chen, Xie Jun, Gaprindashvili, Chiburdanidze). She’s considered one of the top women players in the world during her peak.
Newly crowned WGM Jennifer Shahade was born in Philadelphia in 1980. Jennifer’s peak FIDE rating since 2000 is 2366. She won 2 US Women’s Championship titles and competed for the United States in 3 Olympiads and a few World Knockout Championship cycles.
I was just informed by one of the bloggers that IM Martha Fierro was born in 1977 in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Therefore, she has dual USA – Ecuadorian citizenship. She has won countless National titles and represented Ecuador in Women’s World Championships and Olympiad. Some of her accomplishments include Ecuador National Champion Ecuador (1992 – 2002), World Team Championship U-26 (6th place) Argentina 1998, Silver Medal on the Chess Olympiads 1996 in Yereven Armenia (Ecuador 1st board), 5 times Panamerican Champion 1994 t/m 1998, World Championship U-20 (4th place tied) Brazil 1994, World Championship U-16 (8th place) Slovaquia 1993, etc. Martha’s peak FIDE rating is 2384.
Therefore, if we only count American born, Alisa Maric would be the strongest American born female player followed by Martha Fierro. However, if we talk about the strongest American born and raised, it would definitely be Jennifer Shahade. This is the link to the ChessBase article about this subject http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1214.
What is your opinion? Who are some of the other strongest American born female players? Diane Savereide, Rachel Crotto, Anya Corke?
Paul Morphy, Rueben Fine, Frank Marshall, Harry Nelson Pillsbury were all world class players. Are you only counting people who are living?
I believe they were all born in the US?! Morphy and Pillsbury definitely. Marshall lived in Canada for a while, but not sure if he was born there.
considering strictly American-born players, Ben Finegold is one of the strongest.
See comment by Greg Shahade:
http://www.uschesschampionship.com/2006/news/gmfinegold.htm
and of course, 2563 FIDE is not too shabby..
Finegold is not in the same league as Christiansen, Benjamin and Byrne who were all over 2600. Wolff was also a lot stronger than Finegold.
I think Maric is way stronger than Shahade, at least by 100 points if not more. I also agree that Finegold is not the same as Benjamin, Christiansen or Byrne.
Jack
I think Yaz Seirawan might be strongest male player after Fischer. I once saw him lift 200 lbs with 1 hand.
Why would we not consider Hikaru an American if he was born here? Are we supposed to be prejudiced against him or something because of his high rating?
Ok, I admit it, I dislike him because of his high rating. 🙂
IM Martha Fierro was born in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. USA
Although she’s Ecuadorian, she’s got the dual citizenship.
Yasser Seirawan was born in Damascas (Syrian father, English mother). They moved to England from Syria, then Virginia, then Seattle.
Sharon Burtman, born Mass. (USA), peak rating USCF Master. Alexey (Rudolph) Root, born NE (USA), peak USCF rating 2262.
Yes, agreed that Finegold is probably not the strongest, but among American-born players, especially currently active ones, he’s not far off. It’s an indication of just how few American-born high level players there are.
While Christiansen, Benjamin, and Wolff are (or were) all stronger than Finegold, none of them are over 2600 FIDE currently. At the moment, they are all in the same rating vicinity as Finegold.
Walter Browne was a dominating figure in American chess in his younger days, though I didn’t realize until now that he was actually born in Australia to American father and Australian mother.
I would put both Fischer and Morphy in the first place!
Anya Corke (WGM) 15 years
“Who are some of the other strongest American born female players?”
What about Reshevsky? I think he was born in the US, but I’m not sure.
Reshevsky was born in Poland. The family migrated to the States later.
If the question refers to strongest American born chess players ever including those deceased, it would be Morphy, Pillsbury & Marshall apart from Fischer.
If it refers to current players – Benjamin
http://chess.about.com/library/weekly/aa03a18.htm
Paul Morphy whom Bobby Fischer was once quoted as saying “was probably the greatest genuis of them all”, I think qualifies him to be number 2 right behind Fischer.
TFK
Hi I have a blog about would you like to exchange links?
The strongest American born player hasn’t been born yet.
Why didn’t Alisa Maric stay in the US? Doesn’t she have a sister, Mary, also born in the US, who is much stronger than most of the American born chess girls?
http://www.alisamaric.com
It would seem that Fabiano Caruano needs to be considered now, though he plays as an Italian. He is from New York.