Eric Hansen (chess player)

Eric Hansen
Eric Hansen in 2014 during the Reykjavik Open
Country	Canada
Born	(1992-05-24) May 24, 1992 (age 24) Irvine, California, United States
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2614 (April 2017)
Peak rating	2616 (February 2017)

Eric Hansen (born May 24, 1992) is a Canadian chess grandmaster.

He competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2011 and 2013. Hansen has represented Canada in the Chess Olympiad since 2012.

Eric Hansen was born in Irvine, California, United States, but grew up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He holds dual citizenship.

Hansen attended the University of Texas at Dallas for one year beginning in September 2011 on chess scholarship, representing the school in intercollegiate tournaments. He is taking a break from his studies to focus on chess full-time in the immediate future, and made his European base in Valencia, Spain in the autumn of 2013.

Hansen began playing chess in grade school at the age of nine. By the age of 15, in 2008, Hansen became the youngest ever Alberta champion and earned the title FIDE Master (FM). He repeated as Alberta champion in 2009, 2011 and 2013.

In 2011, Hansen tied for first place in the Canadian Closed Championship with a score of 7½/9 points, but lost a two-game playoff to Bator Sambuev, who was declared champion. Nevertheless, Hansen was nominated to play in the FIDE World Cup 2011. In this event, Hansen played Vugar Gashimov, losing both games. In a September 4, 2012 video interview at the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Hansen reflected on his 2011 World Cup experience: "I got paired against Gashimov and he killed me," he said. "It was a good experience because I realized I wasn't serious enough to be competing with these guys. I'm more serious now ... it was good for motivating me."

He won the Canadian Open Chess Championship, held in Victoria, British Columbia in July 2012. The following month, Hansen tied for 5th–10th places in the World Junior Chess Championship, held in Athens, Greece. He scored 9/13, achieving the best-ever finish by a Canadian in this event; the previous best had been FM Vinny Puri's tie for 8th place in 1988. At the Isthmia Open Tournament at Vrachati, which began a few days later, Hansen scored his first norm for the title Gradmaster (GM), with a tie for 1st–3rd places.