Kevin Spraggett

Kevin Spraggett (born November 10, 1954, in Montreal) is a Canadian chess grandmaster.

He was the first Canadian-born player and fourth Canadian overall to earn the grandmaster title, after Abe Yanofsky, Duncan Suttles and Peter Biyiasas.

Spraggett tied for first in the 1973 Junior Canadian Chess Championship, but lost the playoff match to John MacPhail.

One of his key early tournament victories came in the 1974 Montreal Championship, where he scored 5½/6.

He had reached national master strength by this time, just before his twentieth birthday.

He attended McGill University, studying engineering; however, he left before completing his degree, in favour of becoming a chess professional.

Spraggett spent his early years developing his game in Canadian and American Swiss system open events, where the prizes were often low.

His younger brother Grant is also a strong player, having earned the FIDE Master title.

He was awarded the International Master title in 1975, following a second-place finish at the Zonal Canadian Chess Championship in Calgary; Peter Biyiasas won.

In the late 1980s, he ranked consistently amongst the top 100 players in the world.

Spraggett was raised in Montreal.

One of seven children, his father taught him the rules when he was about seven, but he did not begin to take the game seriously until he was 14.

Spraggett raised his game to meet the challenge of Igor Ivanov, who had settled in Montreal in the early 1980s after defecting from the Soviet Union.

Spraggett has resided in Portugal since the late 1980s, and plays most of his tournaments in Europe, although he visits North America every year or two on average.

Those years saw Spraggett attain success in several strong tournaments, with victories in the 1983 World Open, 1984 Commonwealth Championship, 1984 New York Open, and 1985 Commonwealth Championship.

Spraggett won his first of seven Canadian titles in 1984, which qualified him for the Taxco Interzonal the next year.

Spraggett is the only Canadian ever to have qualified for the world championship Candidates Tournament, having done so in 1985 and 1988.

He has won a total of eight Canadian Open Chess Championships, seven Closed Canadian Chess Championships, and has represented Canada eight times in Olympiad play.

Spraggett has also written for Canadian chess publications and published a chess blog.

Spraggett is widely considered to be the strongest Canadian-born player in chess history.

His FIDE rating peaked at 2633 in January 2007, at age 52.

However, he did not play in an international grandmaster round-robin tournament until Wijk aan Zee in 1985, just after his thirtieth birthday, at which time he was the highest-rated International Master in the world.

His fourth-place result at Taxco 1985, where he topped many more famous players, earned him the Grandmaster title, and seeded him to the Candidates Tournament.

He came in last at the Montpellier Candidates in 1985, but qualified again for the next Candidates.

In his first-round match at Saint John, 1988, Spraggett defeated world no. 3 Andrei Sokolov in a blitz playoff.

He then lost to Artur Yusupov in extra games in the 1989 Candidates' quarterfinal round at Quebec City.

Spraggett has been a Canadian team member at eight Chess Olympiads (including a silver medal performance in 2000), has eight victories in the Canadian Open Championship, and has a host of tournament victories in Europe.

Among notable finishes in the 2000s was his victory at the Figueira da Foz International Chess Festival (2008, with 7½/9) and a clear second place at the Calvià Open (2007, with 7/9).