Tatev Abrahamyan started playing chess at 8 years old after her father took her to the Chess Olympiad games in 1996.  There she met grandmaster Judith Polgar, arguably the greatest woman player of all time and the only woman in the tournament.  “I was in complete awe,” Tatev says. “My first thought was, ‘I want to be just like her.’”  She was soon playing competitively among the top players her age in Europe and has played in the U.S. Women’s Chess Championship five times.

But becoming a top chess player has not been easy.  “The main problem is balancing school with chess. Even though college is the No. 1 priority for me, I usually take time off to play in major events, like this one.”  When she is not studying or playing chess, she likes to read, play tennis, travel, watch movies and hang out with friends.  And she also “unfortunately” has joined the poker-playing craze.

Another big challege for Tatev was moving to the U.S.  In fact, she says “It was the biggest change in my life and it happened in a very short period of time. Everything in my life changed in a matter of few months.  I had to give up everything I knew and start a new life.  Even though I have lived here for some time now, it was a very big adjustment and I think a continuous one. “