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Official website of GM Yaroslav Zherebukh

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About Me

Chess Player

I was born in Lviv, Ukraine in July 1993 and have started playing chess at the age of 7

Fulfilled all of the GM requirements in August 2008 at the age of 15 and was awarded a GM title in January 2009

World Cup 2011 1/8 finalist

Switched federations and represent USA since May 2015

Defeated world's #2 Fabiano Caruana at 2017 US Championship

Won over 20 national and international events

October 2020 ratings: 2695 USCF, 2620 FIDE

Top 15 rated player in the United States

Chess Coach

I moved to the USA in January 2013 to pursue bachelor's degree in finance (on a full-ride scholarship for chess!)

Since moving to US, I switched from playing chess full-time to coaching

I specialize in training talented young kinds and goal-oriented adults

I trained two world champions - GM Jeffery Xiong ( World Junior Champion) and Raj Chennaredy ( World Champion Under 8)

Since 2013, I have given lessons to over 1000 students of all levels

Other

I have a Master's of Science degree in financial economics from Saint Louis University (2018) and Bachelor's of Arts degree in finance from Texas Tech University (2016). I had a full-ride chess scholarship for both

I wrote my first chess book called Modernized Grunfeld Defense and it is now available on Amazon and on this website's shop. Now, I am writing a new 2-volume series on 1.e4 for White

I worked full-time in NYC at the private equity firm

I live in uptown Chicago

Photo Gallery

At the World Open 2017 in Philadelphia. The tournaments organized by Continental Chess Association usually have very decent money prizes and, therefore, attract numerous Grand Masters.

At the Saint Louis Chess Club - the best chess club in the country. I enjoyed a great privilege to participate in most of the premier events the Club has hosted. Once, I was hired by the Club as a commentator for Grand Chess Tour.

2018 US Championship - one of the last tournaments I played before going on a severe chess tournament diet for more than a year.

Now I'm back!