Eric Hansen (chess player)

For other people by the same name, see Eric Hansen (disambiguation).

Eric Hansen
File:Eric Hansen 2014 Iceland - Reykavik Tournament.jpg Eric Hansen in 2014 during the Reykjavik Open
Country	Canada
Born	(1992-05-24) May 24, 1992 Irvine, California, United States
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2580 (May 2024)
Peak rating	2596 (July 2014)

Eric Hansen (born May 24, 1992) is a Canadian chess grandmaster.

Biography

Eric Hansen was born in Irvine, California, United States, but grew up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He holds dual citizenship.

Chess career

Hansen began playing chess in grade school at the age of nine. By the age of 15, in 2008, Hansen became the youngest-ever Alberta Champion, and earned the FM title that year. He repeated as Alberta champion in 2009, 2011 and 2013.

In 2011, IM Hansen tied for first place in the Canadian Zonal Championship with a score of 7½/9, but lost a two-game playoff to GM Bator Sambuev. He won the 2012 Canadian Open Chess Championship, held in Victoria, British Columbia in July; Hansen scored 7½/9. Hansen attended the University of Texas at Dallas for one year beginning in September 2011 on chess scholarship, representing the school in intercollegiate tournaments, including the Pan American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship; UTD won the 2011 PanAms. He is taking a break from his studies to focus on chess full-time in the immediate future, and made his European base in Valencia, Spain in the autumn of 2013.

2011 World Cup

Hansen represented Canada at the 2011 World Cup, for which he automatically qualified, from his 2011 Canadian Closed tie for first with GM Sambuev. At the World Cup, Hansen played Vugar Gashimov, losing both games. In a September 4, 2012 video interview at the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Hansen reflected on his 2011 World Cup experience: "I got paired against Gashimov and he killed me," he said. "It was a good experience because I realized I wasn't serious enough to be competing with these guys. I'm more serious now ... it was good for motivating me."

2012 World Junior Chess Championship

In August, 2012, Hansen tied for 5th–10th places in the World Junior Chess Championship, held in Athens, Greece. He scored 9/13, achieving the best-ever finish by a Canadian in this event; the previous best had been FM Vinny Puri's tie for 8th place in 1988. At the Isthmia Open tournament at Vrachati, which began a few days later, Hansen scored his first GM norm, with a tie for 1st–3rd places.

2012 Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, achieving grandmaster title

Hansen represented Canada on board 4 at the 2012 Chess Olympiad, held in Istanbul, Turkey (August–September, 2012); this was his first Olympiad. Hansen, the youngest player on the team, scored 7.5/10, boosting his FIDE rating by 25 points, reaching 2500 (the minimum for a GM title), and made his final GM norm in the process. He also made the best performance rating in the event by a player who was not already a Grandmaster. Hansen is also the second-youngest Canadian to attain the title of Grandmaster, after Mark Bluvshtein, who reached it at age 16 in 2004. However, Hansen is the youngest Canadian who was trained primarily in Canada to become a Grandmaster; Bluvshtein received Israeli youth chess training systems before immigrating to Canada in 1999 at age 11 and was virtually of national master strength at that age. Bluvshtein earned a 2200+ rating in Canada within a few months of arriving there.

Hansen qualified for the 2013 World Cup, to be held in Norway, by finishing in equal first-fifth places, with 8.5/11, at Mar del Plata 2012, the Americas Cup, held in October, and then advancing by playoff. With only four qualifying places available, Hansen finished fourth in the resulting round-robin quick-games playoff to advance. Hansen won the 2012 Panama Open, with 8.5/9.

Hansen kept his form with a tie for first place, scoring 7/9, at the Cappelle-la-Grande Open in France, in early 2013.

As defending champion, Hansen tied for first place in mid-July in the 2013 Canadian Open in Ottawa with English GM Nigel Short, with both scoring unbeaten 7.5/9.

On-line chess

Hansen has been known to be a very strong blitz and bullet player, both over-the-board and online. He has been spotted playing at Internet Chess Club (ICC), Chess.com, ChessCube, PlayChess.com, and lichess.org. For most of 2011, Hansen was recognized as the highest-rated player on ChessCube.com with a 3000+ rating. By April 2012, he was recognized as the highest-rated bullet player on Chess.com. He subsequently qualified for and accepted Chess.com's Death-Match 4 against then-IM Conrad Holt, who had the highest-rated blitz rating. Interestingly, the two were living in the same dorm building on the University of Texas at Dallas campus. The two were tied 4-4 after the first 8 rounds of 5 minute + 1 second increment blitz games. In the second round of 3 minute + 1 second increment blitz games, Holt pulled ahead 5.5-3.5, and eventually won 15-11.

Since April 2015, Hansen has been active on lichess under the pseudonym chessbrahs, where he mostly plays bullet games. He also co-animates a twitch and YouTube account under the same pseudonym, along with other titled players such as GM Robin van Kampen, IM Aman Hambleton, NM Dr. Oussedik and WFM Flager

External links

Eric Hansen player profile at Chess.com