Gregory Serper (; born September 14, 1969) is a chess grandmaster.

Biography

He was born in

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

, in the former

Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (, ), also known as Soviet Uzbekistan, the Uzbek SSR, UzSSR, or simply Uzbekistan and rarely Uzbekia, was a Republics of the Soviet Union, union republic of the Soviet Union. It was governed by the Communist ...

of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

(present

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

). At age 6, he learned to play

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

from his grandfather. In 1985, at age 16, he started studies at Moscow's famous Botvinnik-Kasparov Chess School. During his military service in Novosibirsk, he attended the 27th

World Junior Chess Championship The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament (players must have been under 20 years old on 1 January in the year of competition) organized by the World Chess Federation (FIDE). The idea was the brainchild of William Rits ...

held in 1988 in

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. In this strong tournament Serper took 3rd place with same score 9/13 as his opponents Lautier, Ivanchuk and Gelfand who took 1st, 2nd and 4th place respectively. In 1992, as a member of the Uzbekistan team, Serper won the

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

in the

30th Chess Olympiad The 30th Chess Olympiad, organized by FIDE and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. and a women's tournament, as well as several other events designed to ...

. In January 1996 he moved with his family to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. In 1999, Serper won the World Open tournament after drawing an

Armageddon Armageddon ( ; ; ; from ) is the prophesied gathering of armies for a battle during the end times, according to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Armageddon is variously interpreted as either a literal or a ...

playoff The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

game as

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

against Boris Gulko, who had been one of nine players who had tied with Serper in the main event. In the same year, he advanced to the finals of the U.S. Chess Championship by defeating

Alex Yermolinsky Alex Yermolinsky (; born April 11, 1958) is an American chess player. Awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1992, he is a two-time U.S. champion. Career Yermolinsky tied for first with Vladislav Vorotnikov in the Leningrad City Chess ...

in the semifinals, but lost in the finals to Gulko. Serper regularly writes articles for

Chess.com Chess.com is an internet chess server and social networking website. One of the largest chess platforms in the world, the site operates on a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available via subscription ...

under the username "Gserper".

Notable game

'' Chess Informant's'' panel of judges voted the following game the second-best game of the 666 games in Volume 59 of ''Chess Informant''.

Larry Christiansen Larry Mark Christiansen (born June 27, 1956) is an American chess player of Danish ancestry. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1977. Christiansen was the U.S. champion in 1980, 1983, and 2002. He competed in the FIDE World Champ ...

rated it his sixth favorite attacking game of the 1990s.

Yasser Seirawan Yasser Seirawan (; born March 24, 1960) is a Syrian-born American chess grandmaster and four-time United States Chess Championship, United States champion. He won the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. Seirawan is also a published chess au ...

wrote, "Can you imagine a game in which you

sacrifice Sacrifice is an act or offering made to a deity. A sacrifice can serve as propitiation, or a sacrifice can be an offering of praise and thanksgiving. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Gree ...

... ''all'' of your pieces? Toss in the

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

of two pawns as well and you have a game to last! Serper- Ioannis Nikolaidis,

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...

Open 1993: 1.c4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.d4 d6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Nge2 Nbd7 6.Ng3 c6 7.Be2 a6 8.Be3 h5 9.f3 b5 10.c5 dxc5 11.dxc5 Qc7 12.O-O h4 13.Nh1 Nh5 14.Qd2 e5 15.Nf2 Nf8 ? Seirawan recommended 15...Nf4 16.Nd3! Bh6 17.a4! with advantage to White. 16.a4 b4 17.Nd5 ! Eschewing the quiet 17.Ncd1 or 17.Na2, White sacrifices a piece to obtain two mobile connected passed pawns on the fifth

rank A rank is a position in a hierarchy. It can be formally recognized—for example, cardinal, chief executive officer, general, professor—or unofficial. People Formal ranks * Academic rank * Corporate title * Diplomatic rank * Hierarchy ...

. 17...cxd5 18.exd5 f5 19.d6 19.Qxb4 would allow Black to complicate with 19...Rb8 20.Qa3 e4 with an obscure position. 19...Qc6 20.Bb5 !! Another sacrifice in order to stop Black from establishing a successful

blockade A blockade is the act of actively preventing a country or region from receiving or sending out food, supplies, weapons, or communications, and sometimes people, by military force. A blockade differs from an embargo or sanction, which are ...

. 20...axb5 21.axb5 Qxb5 Black returns some material in order to blockade White's pawn. White would be winning after 21...Qb7 22.c6 Rxa1 23.cxb7 Rxf1+ 24.Kxf1 Bxb7 25.Nd3 Nd7 26.Qc2 e4 27.Qc7, or 22...Qb8 23.b6 Rxa1 24.Rxa1 Bd7 25.Qd5! Nf6 26.c7. 22.Rxa8 Qc6 23.Rfa1! f4 24.R1a7! Nd7 Not 24...fxe3? 25.Qd5! Qxd5 26.Rxc8#. Now Black threatens to get his

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

to safety by

castling Castling is a move in chess. It consists of moving the king (chess), king two squares toward a rook (chess), rook on the same and then moving the rook to the square that the king passed over. Castling is permitted only if neither the king ...

, so White sacrifices more material. 25.Rxc8+!! Qxc8 26.Qd5! fxe3 27.Qe6+ Kf8 28.Rxd7! exf2+ 29.Kf1 Qe8 30.Rf7+! Yet another sacrifice to allow White's d-pawn to promote. After 30.Qxe8+? Kxe8 31.Re7+ Kf8 32.c6 Ng3+! 33.Kxf2 Nf5, White cannot advance his passed pawns. 30... Qxf7 31.Qc8+ Qe8 32.d7 Kf7 33.dxe8=Q+ Rxe8 34.Qb7+ Re7 35.c6! e4! 36.c7 e3 37.Qd5+ Kf6 38.Qd6+ Kf7 39.Qd5+ Kf6 40.Qd6+ Kf7 41.Qxe7+ Kxe7 42.c8=Q Bh6 43.Qc5+ Ke8 44.Qb5+ Kd8 45.Qb6+ Kd7 46.Qxg6 e2+ 47.Kxf2 Be3+! 48.Ke1! 1–0 Notes based on those by Christiansen, Serper, and Seirawan.Seirawan, pp. 161-67.

References

External links

* * *
US Chess Federation: Grandmaster Gregory Serper
{{DEFAULTSORT:Serper, Gregory 1969 births Living people Chess Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors American chess players Russian chess players Uzbekistani chess players Soviet chess players Chess players from Tashkent