Alexandre Le Siège (born 18 August 1975 in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

), also known as Alexandre Lesiège, is a Canadian chess player who holds the

FIDE title FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

of Grandmaster. He has won three Canadian championships and represented Canada in world championship qualifying events and

Olympiads An olympiad (, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not until Hippias that a cons ...

Biography

Le Siège was first introduced to chess at age six. He began playing in local events organized by Chess 'N Math, and had a candidate master rating by age 11. His first important success was winning the Canadian Junior Championship in 1989, at 14, with a score of +10, =1. He followed up by winning the 1991 Quebec Invitational Championship. Le Siège, at 16, won the 1992 Canadian Chess Championship at Kingston, Ontario, defeating Kevin Spraggett in the key game. This made him the second-youngest Canadian champion ever, after Abe Yanofsky, who also was 16 when he won in 1941. Awarded the

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

title, Le Siège qualified for the 1993

Interzonal Interzonal chess tournaments were tournaments organized by the World Chess Federation FIDE from the 1950s to the 1990s. They were a stage in the triennial World Chess Championship cycle and were held after the Zonal tournaments, and before the Ca ...

Tournament at Biel, Switzerland. In 1997 he won The Quebec Open. He won the Canadian title again in 1999 at Brantford and in 2001 at Montreal after winning a tie-break playoff against Spraggett. He earned the grandmaster title at the 1999 Quebec Open in Montreal with his third and final required title norm, thus becoming the first Canadian francophone to earn the highest title in chess. He represented Canada in Olympiad team chess events, twice on top board, with success. Le Siège virtually retired from competitive chess from 2004 to 2015, when he resumed by defeating

Evgeny Bareev Evgeny Ilgizovich Bareev (; born 21 November 1966) is a Russian-Canadian chess player, trainer, and writer. Awarded the FIDE Grandmaster title in 1989, he was ranked fourth in the world in the international rankings in 1992 and again in 2003, w ...

in a rapid match 1.5-0.5. He subsequently was a member of the Canadian Olympiad team and won the Quebec and Canadian International opens. In 2022, Le Siège was elected to the Canadian Chess Hall of Fame.

References

External links

* * * . May 2016. * * *
Alexandre Lesiege
Chessmetrics player profile. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lesiege, Alexandre 1975 births Living people Canadian chess players Chess Grandmasters Sportspeople from Montreal Chess Olympiad competitors