Samuel Sevian

Samuel Sevian
Samuel Sevian, Maribor 2012
Country	United States
Born	(2000-12-26) December 26, 2000 (age 16) Corning, New York, U.S.
Title	Grandmaster (2014)
FIDE rating	2587 (March 2017)

Samuel Sevian (born December 26, 2000) is an American chess prodigy. He was born in Corning, New York. He holds the record for the youngest ever United States Grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 10 months, and 27 days. He also holds the record for the youngest ever United States International Master at 12 years and 10 months He has also broken age records when reaching the National Expert and Master titles.

Sevian was World Champion for U12s in 2012.

Sevian was born to Armenian-born parents. He started to play chess when he was 5. First success came when he became the youngest Expert in USCF history at 8 years, 2 months, beating Brian Luo's previous record by over 10 months, an achievement featured in an article of Los Angeles Times by John Peters. On December 9, 2010, Sevian became the youngest National Master in USCF history at 9 years, 11 months, and 23 days, beating Nicholas Nip's record by 3 days. In 2012, Sevian completed all International Master norms in the space of 6 months, during three Metropolitan FIDE IM Invitational events. He eventually became an International Master after crossing the 2400 FIDE rating mark during a tournament in Budapest in November 2013, setting a new US record of 12 years 10 months.

He became the World Champion in the U12 category in Maribor, Slovenia, November 7–19, 2012. In May 2013, Sevian was invited to play in the U.S. Chess Championship in St. Louis as the youngest ever participant. The field consisted of 24 players and Sevian scored 4/9, which placed him in shared 14th place ahead of several grandmasters.

Sevian became a Grandmaster at 13 years, 10 months, and 26 days, a new US record. After completing all three GM Norms at the Foxwoods Open in January 2014, Saint Louis GM Invitational in May and Washington International in August 2014 at age 13 years and 7 months, he then completed the final requirement for the title by reaching over a 2500 FIDE rating during the Saint Louis GM Norm Invitational tournament, which he won with 7.5/9.