Grandmaster Larry Christiansen

Grandmaster Larry Christiansen was born June 27, 1956 in Riverside, California. A fine swimmer and water polo player, he learned chess by watching the older kids play at his swimming club when he was all of nine years old. Together with his brother Jim, Larry spent countless hours playing checkers and chess which led to a love of the game that paid off when he became a grandmaster by winning the Malaga tournament in Spain in 1977 and became one of the few players in the history of chess to skip right over the lesser international master title.

Larry later promoted chess for Church's Fried Chicken by touring the U.S. from coast to coast giving exhibitions before moving to Germany in the 1980's to play the European circuit and to participate in the German club league, or Bundesliga, in which he was a regular all-star. Christiansen was U.S. co-Champion in 1980 and 1983 and has represented the United States eight times in the bi-annual chess Olympiads events as a player.

At the 1998 Olympiad, Larry was non-playing captain of the U.S. team that brought home the silver medal, narrowly missing the gold. Larry is currently living with his patent agent wife Natasha in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Still an active player, Larry can frequently be found on the Internet playing and teaching chess on the World Chess Network. Considered one of the greatest attacking players in the history of American chess, Larry's latest achievement is the publication of his book Storming the Barricades.

GM Christiansen also scored 6-0 on board 1 for the Cambridge Springers.

View his rating and tournament history.