Alexander Ian Sherzer (February 1, 1971 – December 4, 2022) was an American

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

grandmaster and medical doctor.

Chess career

Sherzer was active during the late 1980s to early 1990s. He was the U.S. Junior Champion in 1991. Sherzer became an International Master (IM) in 1989 and awarded the International Chess Grandmaster (GM) title in 1993. In 1986, he won the US Cadet Championship Under 16. He won the invitational US Junior Championship twice, in 1989 and 1991. Sherzer won 2nd place at the U-18 World Championship. Sherzer shared 2nd place with

Boris Gulko Boris Franzevich Gulko ( rus, Борис Францевич Гулько, p=bɐˈrʲis ɡʊlʲˈko; born February 9, 1947) is a Soviet- American Grandmaster in chess. Gulko is noted to be the only person to win both the Soviet Chess Championship ...

behind

Patrick Wolff Patrick Gideon Wolff (born February 15, 1968) is an American chess Grandmaster. He is the son of philosopher Robert Paul Wolff and brother of law professor Tobias Barrington Wolff. Wolff won the United States Chess Championship in 1992 and 1995 ...

at the United States Championship in 1992. Sherzer won against many grandmasters in his chess career including victory versus

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating ...

in Philadelphia, 1987. Alex was famous for his heavy preparation of the Berlin Defence of the

Ruy Lopez The Ruy Lopez (; ), also called the Spanish Opening or Spanish Game, is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Bb5 The Ruy Lopez is named after 16th-century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura. It is one ...

. Online in 2021, at the

US Chess Center The US Chess Center is an American non-profit organization that teaches at-risk youth in the Washington, D.C., area how to play chess. The center runs chess tournaments and brings in high level chess players to speak to students. The Center i ...

Dr. Sherzer talked about his chess experiences, including his friendship with the Polgar sisters and meeting

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an ...

Personal life

In the late 90s Sherzer pursued a medical degree at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, where he had befriended the Polgar sisters (

Susan Susan is a feminine given name, from Persian "Susan" (lily flower), from Egyptian '' sšn'' and Coptic ''shoshen'' meaning "lotus flower", from Hebrew ''Shoshana'' meaning "lily" (in modern Hebrew this also means "rose" and a flower in general), ...

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. ...

, and

Judit Judit is a feminine given name related to Judith. Notable people with the name include: * Judit Bar-Ilan (1958–2019), Israeli computer scientist * Judit Elek (born 1937), Hungarian film director and screenwriter * Judit Földing-Nagy (born 1965 ...

), each of whom was a renowned chess player; Susan was Women's World Champion. The Polgar household was then a gathering place for famous chess players, including Viswanathan Anand and

. Through the introduction of a family friend and notable Washington DC attorney Julius Kaplan, Sherzer became an unwitting participant in an hysterical effort to bring Bobby Fischer, then an emigre, legally back to the United States. Kaplan succeeded in brokering a potential deal with the US State Department, though Fischer's racism and erratic demands prevented its fruition. The episode is recounted in Julius Kaplan's memoir Secrets and Suspense, International Law Stories (Academica Press, 2018). The following year, Sherzer began attending

UMBC The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a public research university in Baltimore County, Maryland. It has a fall 2022 enrollment of 13,991 students, 61 undergraduate majors, over 92 graduate programs (38 master, 25 doctoral, ...

on a chess scholarship, taking courses in emergency health science. In May 2003, while driving to Shreveport, Louisiana to begin a hospital internship, he was arrested in Mobile, Alabama for allegedly attempting to solicit sex from a 15-year-old-girl he met on the Internet. Although the prosecution managed to suppress over ninety percent of the evidence in Sherzer's favor, the jury produced a full acquittal. The episode is also recounted in the Kaplan memoir. Sherzer was a practicing medical doctor in Florida and an active volunteer with Doctors Without Borders until his death on December 4, 2022, at the age of 51.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sherzer, Alex 1971 births 2022 deaths American chess players Chess Grandmasters People from Fallston, Maryland Physicians from Maryland Semmelweis University alumni University of Maryland, Baltimore County alumni People from Bonita Springs, Florida Physicians from Florida