MTS 7th Grader Plays in Global Chess Tournaments

In November, MTS 7th grader, Sebby Suarez, was contacted by PlayMagnus to meet World Chess Champion, Magnus Carlsen at the Meltwater Cup hosted at the Shack15 in San Francisco Ferry Building, the last competition in the Champion Chess Tour 2022 featuring some of the world’s top chess players. Magnus Carlsen, who participated along with other top grandmasters in the tournament, is considered the best chess player in history. Meeting Magnus and watching him play was a highlight in Sebby’s life. 

Sebby was invited as a local chess talent to be Interviewed (50 minutes) and comment on the Championship games. This summer Sebby qualified to play in the 2022 Intercontinental ChessKids Candidate Tournament in Madrid. Chess.com is the world's largest website which held the global tournament where only 6 kids qualified to play representing three areas of the world: The Americas, Europe and Africa, and Asia & Oceania. Sebby qualified first for the Americas with second place to the Pan American Chess champion. Parallel to this tournament was the FIDE Candidates Tournament where he got to meet the next top 8 chess players in the World.

Playing on GM Hikaru’s table.

Sebby started playing chess with his father, Yvan, when he was 5 years old. Yvan noted that after about 5 months, Sebby began beating him. “Math and analytical thinking comes very naturally to him” his father relates. Sebby worked with Lannete and Jeff Gordon, from Corte Madera, who taught him their love for the game. He won the Scholastic Marin County Chess Championships consecutively at ages 8, 9, and 10 years old.

Meeting GM Caruana in Madrid.

When the pandemic hit, Sebby started to spend more honing his chess skills. He won a number of online national chess tournaments. In the summer of 2021 in his first official Over the Board (OTB) “in person” tournament he got first place in the US Chess National Open - U1300 in Las Vegas and Mixed Doubles with WGM Carla Heredia. This is the US largest chess event. That year he also ended up tied for 2nd in the US Chess National Scholastic K-12 in Orlando, FL.

The young chess star is now 12 years old and plays competitions both online and in person. He is coached by two former FIDE youth World Champions. Sebby travels once or twice a month for tournaments. Over the summer, he competed internationally, playing the FIDE School World Chess Championship in Panama, The Intercontinental Chess tournament in Madrid, US Open in Palm Desert, and the North American Youth Chess Championship in Calgary, Canada.

Sebby is a member and frequently plays chess at the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco which is the oldest running Chess Club in the U.S. founded in 1854. 

You can see more of his chess adventures on his instagram: SebbyChess.