Tal Shaked | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Born | (1978-02-05)February 5, 1978 (age 47) Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| Title | Grandmaster (1997) |
| FIDE rating | 2468 (March 2025) |
| Peak rating | 2535 (January 1998) |
Tal Shaked is an Americanchessgrandmaster who is best known for winning theWorld Junior Championship in 1997.
Shaked learned the game at the age of seven, and developed his chess skills in the scholastic chess organizations ofTucson, Arizona. As a junior, Shaked won several national scholastic championships, including the 1987 National Primary Championship, the 1990 National Elementary Championship, the 1991 National K-8 Championship, the 1992 National K-8 Championship, the 1992 U.S. Cadet (under 16) Championship, and the 1995 U.S. Junior (under 20) Championship; he also won the 1995 National Open.[1] Shaked won theLaura Aspis Prize in 1991 as the number-one rated American chess player under the age of 13, and that same year became the youngest ever winner of the Arizona State Championship.[1][2]
Shaked's victory at the 1995 US Junior Championship granted him a place in the 1996U.S. Chess Championship. Although he was by far the youngest and lowest-rated player in the field, he surprised many by his performance, leading the tournament after eight rounds.[3] Later in 1996, Shaked received theFrank Samford fellowship, which allowed him the monetary resources to fully devote his time to chess. Making the most of the opportunity, Shaked obtained three grandmaster norms within five months, officially attaining the title of grandmaster;[1] it would be ten years later until another American-born player would achieve the grandmaster title. Two months after his third norm, Shaked won the 1997 World Junior Championship, defeating top-seed and future super-grandmasterAlexander Morozevich and scoring a total of six wins and seven draws to beat out Morozevich, future FIDEworld chess championRuslan Ponomariov and others.[1]
As winner of the World Junior Championship, Shaked was invited to play in the super-grandmaster event in Tillburg, Holland, a field which included world championGarry Kasparov, future world championVladimir Kramnik, and super-grandmastersPeter Svidler,Peter Leko,Alexei Shirov,Judit Polgár andMichael Adams.[4] In late 1997, Shaked competed in theFIDE World Chess Championship, winning his first round match before losing in the second round.[1] In 1998, Shaked advanced to the semifinals of the United States Championship, defeating grandmasterBoris Gulko before losing to eventual championNick de Firmian.[5] Having entered college at theUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore County on a full chess scholarship in 1998, he helped lead UMBC to the 1998Pan-American Intercollegiate Championship as his team's top-rated player.[5][6] He eventually transferred to theUniversity of Arizona where he graduated with a degree in computer science in 2002.
Tal Shaked eventually gave up competitive chess, though he remained active withblitz chess on the internet. His last serious competition was theFIDE World Chess Championship 1999, and he had already decided to leave chess prior to that tournament due to motivation and the economic uncertainty in being a professional chess player.
Shaked received his master's degree in computer science from the University of Washington in 2004 and joinedGoogle as a Software Engineer on 4 October 2004. On 9 March 2019 he left Google in order to lead Machine Learning and AI atLyft. On 7 October 2019, he went back to work for Google, as Distinguished Engineer (Senior Director).
