Gregory Serper
Encyclopedia
Gregory Serper (born September 14, 1969) is an International Grandmaster
of chess
.
He was born in Tashkent
, in the former Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union
(present Uzbekistan
). At age 6, he learned to play chess from his grandfather. In 1985, at age 16, he started studies at Moscow's famous Botvinnik-Kasparov Chess School.
In 1992, as a member of the Uzbekistan team, Serper won the silver medal
in the 30th Chess Olympiad
.
In January 1996 he moved with his family to the United States
. In 1999, Serper won the World Open tournament
after drawing an Armageddon playoff
game as Black
against Boris Gulko, who had been one of nine players who had tied with Serper in the main event. In the same year, he advanced to the finals of the U.S. Chess Championship
by defeating Alex Yermolinsky
in the semifinals, but lost in the finals to Gulko.
panel of judges voted the following game the second-best game of the 666 games in Volume 59 of Chess Informant. Larry Christiansen rated it his sixth favorite attacking game of the 1990s. Yasser Seirawan wrote, "Can you imagine a game in which you sacrifice
... all of your pieces? Toss in the promotion
of two pawns
as well and you have a game to last!
Serper-Ioannis Nikolaidis, St. Petersburg Open 1993 1.c4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.d4 d6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Nge2 Nbd7 6.Ng3 c6 7.Be2 a6 8.Be3 h5 9.f3 b5 10.c5 dxc5 11.dxc5 Qc7 12.O-O h4 13.Nh1 Nh5 14.Qd2 e5 15.Nf2 Nf8? Seirawan recommended 15...Nf4 16.Nd3! Bh6 17.a4! with advantage to White. 16.a4 b4 17.Nd5! Eschewing the quiet 17.Ncd1 or 17.Na2, White sacrifices a piece to obtain two mobile connected passed pawns on the fifth rank. cxd5 18.exd5 f5 19.d6 19.Qxb4 would allow Black to complicate with 19...Rb8 20.Qa3 e4 with an obscure position. Qc6 20.Bb5!! Another sacrifice in order to stop Black from establishing a successful blockade. axb5 21.axb5 Qxb5 Black returns some material in order to blockade White's pawn. White would be winning after 21...Qb7 22.c6 Rxa1 23.cxb7 Rxf1+ 24.Kxf1 Bxb7 25.Nd3 Nd7 26.Qc2 e4 27.Qc7, or 22...Qb8 23.b6 Rxa1 24.Rxa1 Bd7 25.Qd5! Nf6 26.c7. 22.Rxa8 Qc6 23.Rfa1! f4 24.R1a7! Nd7 Not 24...fxe3? 25.Qd5! Qxd5 26.Rxc8#. Now Black threatens to get his king
to safety by castling
, so White sacrifices more material. 25.Rxc8+!! Qxc8 26.Qd5! fxe3 27.Qe6+ Kf8 28.Rxd7! exf2+ 29.Kf1 Qe8 30.Rf7+! Yet another sacrifice to allow White's d-pawn to promote. After 30.Qxe8+? Kxe8 31.Re7+ Kf8 32.c6 Ng3+! 33.Kxf2 Nxf5, White cannot advance his passed pawns. Qxf7 31.Qc8+ Qe8 32.d7 Kf7 33.dxe8=Q+ Rxe8 34.Qb7+ Re7 35.c6! e4! 36.c7 e3 37.Qd5+ Kf6 38.Qd6+ Kf7 39.Qd5+ Kf6 40.Qd6+ Kf7 41.Qxe7+ Kxe7 42.c8=Q Bh6 43.Qc5+ Ke8 44.Qb5+ Kd8 45.Qb6+ Kd7 46.Qxg6 e2+ 47.Kxf2 Be3+! 48.Ke1! 1–0 Notes based on those by Christiansen, Serper, and Seirawan.
International Grandmaster
The title Grandmaster is awarded to strong chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain....
of chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
.
He was born in Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
, in the former Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
(present Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
). At age 6, he learned to play chess from his grandfather. In 1985, at age 16, he started studies at Moscow's famous Botvinnik-Kasparov Chess School.
In 1992, as a member of the Uzbekistan team, Serper won the silver medal
Silver medal
A silver medal is a medal awarded to the second place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and contests with similar formats....
in the 30th Chess Olympiad
30th Chess Olympiad
The 30th Chess Olympiad, organized by the FIDE and comprising an open and women's tournament, as well as several events designed to promote the game of chess, took place between June 7 and June 25, 1992, at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila, Philippines.-Individual...
.
In January 1996 he moved with his family to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In 1999, Serper won the World Open tournament
World Open chess tournament
The World Open chess tournament is an annual open chess tournament played in most editions in Philadelphia and some editions in New York. The inaugural event was a huge success played in New York in 1973 with 732 participants, and was won by Walter Browne....
after drawing an Armageddon playoff
Playoff
The playoffs, postseason, or finals of a sports league are a game or series of games played after the regular season by the top competitors, usually but not always with a single-elimination system, to determine the league champion or a similar accolade.In the U.S...
game as Black
White and Black in chess
In chess, the player who moves first is referred to as "White" and the player who moves second is referred to as "Black". Similarly, the pieces that each conducts are called, respectively, "the white pieces" and "the black pieces". The pieces are often not literally white and black, but some...
against Boris Gulko, who had been one of nine players who had tied with Serper in the main event. In the same year, he advanced to the finals of the U.S. Chess Championship
U.S. Chess Championship
The U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational tournament held to determine the national chess champion of the United States. Since 1936, it has been held under the auspices of the U.S. Chess Federation. Until 1999, the event consisted of a round-robin tournament of varying size...
by defeating Alex Yermolinsky
Alex Yermolinsky
Alex Yermolinsky is an American chess Grandmaster. In 1993, Yermolinsky won the U.S. Chess Championship, tying for first place with Alexander Shabalov...
in the semifinals, but lost in the finals to Gulko.
Notable game
Chess Informant'sChess Informant
Chess Informant is a publishing company from Belgrade that periodically produces a book of the same name, as well as the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings, Encyclopaedia of Chess Endings, Opening Monographs, other print publications, and software Chess Informant (Šahovski Informator) is a...
panel of judges voted the following game the second-best game of the 666 games in Volume 59 of Chess Informant. Larry Christiansen rated it his sixth favorite attacking game of the 1990s. Yasser Seirawan wrote, "Can you imagine a game in which you sacrifice
Sacrifice (chess)
In chess, a sacrifice is a move giving up a piece in the hopes of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value....
... all of your pieces? Toss in the promotion
Promotion (chess)
Promotion is a chess rule describing the transformation of a pawn that reaches its eighth rank into the player's choice of a queen, knight, rook, or bishop of the same color . The new piece replaces the pawn on the same square and is part of the move. Promotion is not limited to pieces that have...
of two pawns
Pawn (chess)
The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...
as well and you have a game to last!
Serper-Ioannis Nikolaidis, St. Petersburg Open 1993 1.c4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.d4 d6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Nge2 Nbd7 6.Ng3 c6 7.Be2 a6 8.Be3 h5 9.f3 b5 10.c5 dxc5 11.dxc5 Qc7 12.O-O h4 13.Nh1 Nh5 14.Qd2 e5 15.Nf2 Nf8? Seirawan recommended 15...Nf4 16.Nd3! Bh6 17.a4! with advantage to White. 16.a4 b4 17.Nd5! Eschewing the quiet 17.Ncd1 or 17.Na2, White sacrifices a piece to obtain two mobile connected passed pawns on the fifth rank. cxd5 18.exd5 f5 19.d6 19.Qxb4 would allow Black to complicate with 19...Rb8 20.Qa3 e4 with an obscure position. Qc6 20.Bb5!! Another sacrifice in order to stop Black from establishing a successful blockade. axb5 21.axb5 Qxb5 Black returns some material in order to blockade White's pawn. White would be winning after 21...Qb7 22.c6 Rxa1 23.cxb7 Rxf1+ 24.Kxf1 Bxb7 25.Nd3 Nd7 26.Qc2 e4 27.Qc7, or 22...Qb8 23.b6 Rxa1 24.Rxa1 Bd7 25.Qd5! Nf6 26.c7. 22.Rxa8 Qc6 23.Rfa1! f4 24.R1a7! Nd7 Not 24...fxe3? 25.Qd5! Qxd5 26.Rxc8#. Now Black threatens to get his king
King (chess)
In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...
to safety by castling
Castling
Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...
, so White sacrifices more material. 25.Rxc8+!! Qxc8 26.Qd5! fxe3 27.Qe6+ Kf8 28.Rxd7! exf2+ 29.Kf1 Qe8 30.Rf7+! Yet another sacrifice to allow White's d-pawn to promote. After 30.Qxe8+? Kxe8 31.Re7+ Kf8 32.c6 Ng3+! 33.Kxf2 Nxf5, White cannot advance his passed pawns. Qxf7 31.Qc8+ Qe8 32.d7 Kf7 33.dxe8=Q+ Rxe8 34.Qb7+ Re7 35.c6! e4! 36.c7 e3 37.Qd5+ Kf6 38.Qd6+ Kf7 39.Qd5+ Kf6 40.Qd6+ Kf7 41.Qxe7+ Kxe7 42.c8=Q Bh6 43.Qc5+ Ke8 44.Qb5+ Kd8 45.Qb6+ Kd7 46.Qxg6 e2+ 47.Kxf2 Be3+! 48.Ke1! 1–0 Notes based on those by Christiansen, Serper, and Seirawan.