Former chess prodigy considers new run at grandmaster title

Poker player and former chess prodigy Jeff Sarwer finished third in the Kings of Talinn poker tournament over the weekend but he has a bigger goal in mind these days: grandmaster status in the game that first grabbed his attention when he was still playing with toy dinosaurs. The former prodigy-turned poker pro spoke with PokerListing's Finland's Tuomo Järvelä during his run to the final table and revisiting his first "Mindsport" love is on his mind.

"I think I'm going to test the waters a little bit with chess before I go in and say I'm going to become a grandmaster, but I don't think many people at my age just decide to study chess and become a grandmaster. So if I could do it – and that's a big if – I think that would be very nice. In a way it's perhaps a bit of unfinished business in my mind. I have no aspirations to become the World Chess Champion or something like that. But if I can become a chess grandmaster in my late 30s, when I only had a bit of training as a kid, that would be nice. For myself, as a personal goal."

World Champion at eight

Sarwer's background is an unconventional one. Home-schooled by his father, Sarwer and his sister traveled across North America and the World while his chess talent developed. He learned the game at age four, and by six was granted a lifetime membership in the Manhattan Chess Club in New York.

"I started chess by playing with toy dinosaurs when I was a very young boy," Sarwer said over the weekend, "lining them all up. Then I found chess pieces. A lot of people get into games who are into math. And I got into chess because it was aesthetical. I just loved the way the pieces looked and that made me love the game."

Given a tumultuous family situation which only got more complex, Sarwer was pushed away from chess as he grew older. Now in his late 30s, Sarwer says he's enticed to revisit his first love and take it to the next level.

"Poker's the game where you make money"

Like most games players, Sarwer says, he moved into poker later on in life because that's where the money is. "You could ask so many people who play games. They all move to poker at some point. Whether it's Magic: The Gathering or Starcraft or chess, there's so many cross-overs because poker's the game where you make money." Sarwer earned €16,470 for his third place finish over the weekend.

Jeff Sarwer (born May 14, 1978 in Kingston, Ontario) is a Canadian-Finnish former child chess prodigy whose charismatic personality and chess talent made him a well known media figure. His chess career and his family's unconventional lifestyle were the subjects of many articles and TV shows. Jeff's attacking playing style was often compared to Bobby Fischer, and a tournament game drawn against him by another young chess player, Joshua Waitzkin, was the inspiration for the climax in the 1993 film Searching for Bobby Fischer.

Jeff Sarwer's character was portrayed as Jonathan Poe. In the film's final game, Jonathan declined the offer of a draw and eventually lost. In reality Jeff Sarwer declined the draw offer by Josh Waitzkin, but the game ended in a draw (because of insufficient material) a few moves later. Under tournament tie-breaking rules, Waitzkin was determined to have played stronger opponents during the overall competition and was awarded first place, but they were declared US Primary School co-champions. At the time that the game was played, Jeff was seven and Josh nine years old. Here for posterity is the original game:

Jeff Sarwer won the Under Ten World Youth Chess Championship in Puerto Rico in 1986 representing Canada. When he was eight, he was believed by many to be one of the strongest prodigies in the history of the game. Allen Kaufman, head of the American Chess Foundation, said, "Jeff at nine is stronger than Bobby was at 11." Bruce Pandolfini said, "Of the several thousand kids I've taught, Jeff is certainly the most amazing young player I've ever seen."

Jeff learned the rules of chess at the age of four from his six-year-old sister Julia, and at age of six started to play at the Manhattan Chess Club. Jeff used to entertain large crowds by playing simuls against 40 people every Canada Day from the age of seven on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. He also used to show up and play speed chess at Washington Square Park in New York City, where large numbers of people gathered to watch his games.

At the age of seven Jeff's enthusiasm for the game caught the attention of grandmaster Edmar Mednis and he invited him to analyze the 1986 World Championship Match between Kasparov-Karpov on PBS. Jeff and his sister Julia (who was also a world champion for girls under ten) continued to do this for the rematch in 1987 as well. After this Jeff and Julia became well known in media circles and appeared on various talk shows and were the subject of a documentary.

After he disappeared at a very young age, many people thought Jeff would not be seen playing chess again. In September 2007 Jeff resurfaced to the chess scene apparently without training and entered a 30 minute semi-rapid tournament at Malbork castle in Poland. He finished in third place with a score of 7.0/9 in a group of 86 players including four Grandmasters. Since he had no active chess rating, he was given a provisional Elo rating of 2300 but seemed to perform above that level.

In January 2010 Jeff gave a long interview to Chess Life Online detailing his experiences from that tournament and talking about his current life in Europe. In August 2010, Sarwer was profiled in the Sunday Times Magazine talking about his father's methods, his chess career and his reappearance in public. Sarwer says that if he decided to make chess a priority, he would do so to become a grandmaster. "It would require at least two years of dedicated hardcore study and practice," he said, "especially in regards to opening preparation” for him to achieve that goal.

Source: Pokerlistings, Wikipedia