Alonso Zapata Ramirez (born August 22, 1958) is a Colombian chess grandmaster. He is an eight-time Colombian Chess Champion.

Chess career

Zapata has won the

Colombian Chess Championship Following are the official winners of the national Colombian Chess Championships from 1928 to date. The first Colombian Men's Championship was held in Cali in 1928, and first Women's Championship in Bogotá in 1965. Men's Champions : Women's ...

in 1980, 1981, 1995 (joint), 1996, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2008. Zapata played twelve times for Colombia in the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 an ...

s (1978–1992, 1996–1998, 2002 and 2012). He finished second, behind Artur Yusupov, in the 16th

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 ...

at Innsbruck 1977, tied for third and fourth at Havana 1983, and twice shared first at Cienfuegos in 1980 and Matanzas in 1994 (

Capablanca Memorial The Capablanca Memorial is a chess tournament that has been held annually in Cuba since 1962 in honor of José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera. At the time, it was the best paid tournament in the world. Since 1974 B and C tournaments have been held ...

). Zapata was awarded the International Master (IM) title in 1980 and the GM title in 1984. In 1988, Zapata beat future world champion

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating o ...

in only six moves. In 2014, shortly after relocating to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Zapata won the Southeast Open, held at

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

, with 4.5/5. In 2018, Zapata tied for first place in the inaugural National Senior Tournament of Champions. In 2019, Zapata won clear first place in the Charlotte Chess Center's IM-B Norm Round Robin Tournament held in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

with an undefeated score of 7.5/9.http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201906095772.2 Charlotte IM-B Round Robin Crosstable Alonso Zapata also has a wife and two children, one who is 13, and another one who is 3 years old.

References

External links

* 1958 births Chess grandmasters Living people Colombian chess players Chess Olympiad competitors 20th-century Colombian people 21st-century Colombian people {{Colombia-chess-bio-stub