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? Posted by Picasa

Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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