César Augusto Blanco Gramajo (born 14 January 1959) is a

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

n chess player who holds the

ICCF title International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) was founded on 26 March 1951 as a new appearance of the International Correspondence Chess Association (ICCA), which was founded in 1945, as successor of the Internationaler Fernschachbund (I ...

of Grandmaster (2003) and the

FIDE title FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

Candidate Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (chess), Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combinatio ...

(2018). He primarily plays

correspondence chess Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, traditionally through the postal system. Today it is usually played through a correspondence chess server, a public internet chess forum, or email. Less commo ...

, and has twice been Latin American champion in this modality.

Early life

Blanco was born in

Guatemala City Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...

, Guatemala. He received a business administration degree from San Carlos University in Guatemala, and his thesis was awarded as the best in the country (1985) in the economics area. He also got an MBA – graduated as cum laude – in Finance from Francisco Marroquin University, also in Guatemala City.

Chess career

Blanco started to play chess in 1972 when the Championship match between

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Chess Champi ...

and

Boris Spassky Boris Vasilyevich Spassky (; January 30, 1937 – February 27, 2025) was a Russian chess grandmaster who was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky played three world championship matches: he lost to Tigra ...

called the attention of the world toward chess. He also represented his country in the

31st Chess Olympiad The 31st Chess Olympiad (, ''31-ya Shakhmatnaya olimpiada''), organized by FIDE and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. and a women's tournament, took pla ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, 1994. By post, Blanco started to play around 1974 (when he was only 15 years old). The passion for the game increased with the years, but professional activity limited his participation in "live tournaments". On the other side, postal chess became his main source of activity to keep up to date with chess. He won the XIII and XIV CADAP zonal championships. He received the CADAP Master title in 1985, then the IM title from ICCF in 1996, the SIM title in 1999 and he became the first Postal Chess Grandmaster (GM) title of the Mexican, Central America and Caribbean area in 2003. Due to working reasons, Blanco left Guatemala and became a member of the

US Chess Federation The United States Chess Federation (also known as US Chess or USCF) is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in The World Chess Federation (FIDE). USCF administers the official national rating sys ...

around 1998. He played several tournaments around the US and got his

FIDE rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American chess master and physics professor. The Elo system wa ...

under the US federation. Currently, Blanco is living back in Guatemala and continues to play chess over the board and correspondence (online, by email or postal mail) chess.

Occupation

Blanco was vice president and director of finance and administration of

Kellogg's Kellanova, formerly known as the Kellogg Company and commonly known as Kellogg's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, US. Kellanova produces and markets con ...

Latin America region from 2000 until his early retirement in 2007. He previously worked for

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase, New York, Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the f ...

, and

Citibank Citibank, N.A. ("N. A." stands for "National bank (United States), National Association"; stylized as citibank) is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of Citigroup, a financial services multinational corporation, multinational corporation. Ci ...

Personal life

Blanco married Vivian Bock in 1983, and the couple have three children: María Alejandra, an architect living in Germany, Pablo Andrés (an organizational Psychologyst) and Valeria.

Post retirement activities

Blanco -already in his retirement- began to stream on Twitch in September 2021. His nickname is (Betobetun),twitch.tv/betobetun focusing on strategy, tactics, and analysis of games..

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blanco Gramajo, Cesar Augusto 1959 births Living people Guatemalan chess players Correspondence chess grandmasters Chess Candidate Masters Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala alumni Universidad Francisco Marroquín alumni Guatemalan Twitch (service) streamers Chess Olympiad competitors