Pawel Blehm

Pawel Blehm

Moniker: The Polish Magician
Title: International Grandmaster
FIDE Rating: 2505
USCF Rating: 2584

Year: M.S. student
Major: Information Systems

Born April 17, 1980 in Olkusz, Poland.
International Chess Grandmaster since 2000.

One of the best young players in the world since 1993. He was vice-world champion under 14 in 1994, World Junior Team Championship member in 1999 and 2000, and shared 2nd place in the European Championships under 20 in 2000. He also was a participant in the 2000 FIDE World Championships in New Delhi. Member of the Polish Olympic team for the 34th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul. Six-time Polish junior champion. Winner of International tournaments in Miedzyzdroje 1995, Hallsberg 1998/99, Legnica 2000, Dallas Ken Smith Memorial 2001 and the zonal tournament in Budapest 2000. He also took 20th place in the Millennium World Cup blitz tournament in Warsaw, 2000.

Since 2002 Pawel lives in Baltimore where he is studying Financial Economics at University of Maryland at Baltimore County.

On the chess scene Pawel is known as a very dangerous attacking player. His strongest points are use of initiative and deep calculating. He is an author of many improvements and important theoretical novelities, he is also a well known specialist of Sicilian Defence and King's Indian Defence.

Besides chess, Pawel's main hobby and entertainment is playing soccer. Its not hard to guess that his favorite role on the field is forward!

Taken from Pawel's Chess Academy website