Julio Granda
Julio Ernesto Granda Zúñiga (born February 25, 1967) is a Peruvian chess grandmaster and four-time champion of the Americas. Career Born in Camaná, he learned how to play chess at the age of five. In 1980 he won the World Infant Cup in Mazatlàn, Mexico. In 1984 Granda won the Pan American Junior Chess Championship in Lima. By the age of 19, he had obtained the title of Grandmaster by the FIDE, the World Chess Federation, after surpassing the chess rating of 2500. He finished 1st with Bent Larsen at Mar del Plata 1993. He is a five-time chess champion of Peru, winning in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 2002. Granda won the 4th American Continental Championship at Cali 2007 on tie-break between the five first-place finishers at 8/11. This victory qualified him for the Chess World Cup 2007 where he lost his first round match to Arkadij Naiditsch ½–1½. In 2008 he won the 2nd Iberoamerican Championship in Linares, Spain by defeating in the final Eduardo Iturrizaga 2½-1½. In December 2009, he tied for 1st–4th with Georg Meier, Viktor Láznička and Kiril Georgiev in the 19th Magistral Pamplona Tournament. In 2010, he won the 5th Torneo Abierto in Guadalajara.