GMKirk Ghazarian

Kirk Ghazarian was born in Irvine, California, in 2006. As a nine-year-old living in the U.S. Virgin Islands, he attracted attention at the 2015 U.S. Open by defeating a master for the first time. He was already studying Garry Kasparov's My Great Predecessors books and named Akiba Rubinstein and Louis Paulsen among his favorite players. He finished second in the online Pan-Armenian tournament in 2020. FIDE awarded him the international master title in 2022.

In 2023, Ghazarian was selected for the U.S. All-America Chess Team. He finished runner-up on tiebreak at the Rochefort Masters that February. He qualified for the 2023 World Cup but was unable to attend. A victory over Miklos Galyas at a New York norm event in January 2024 secured his final GM norm. He completed the remaining rating requirement later that year, and FIDE awarded him the grandmaster title in 2024.