David Arenas is a Colombian chess grandmaster. Born in 1989, Arenas achieved the title of grandmaster in 2013, becoming just the second Colombian to achieve this prestigious status in chess.
Chess Career:
Arenas has played chess since the age of nine and went on to win a number of tournaments in his early days, including the Pan American Junior Chess Championship U-20 in 2008. He also won the 37th World Chess Olympiad in 2006, where he represented Colombia.
In 2010, he won his first international tournament in Costa Rica and achieved his first Grandmaster norm. His second Grandmaster norm came in 2012 at the Mar del Plata Open in Argentina and the third at the World Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, which allowed him to obtain the title of International Grandmaster in January 2013.
He won the Colombian National Chess Championship five times between 2009 and 2014.
In 2019, Arenas finished in second place at the American Continental Chess Championship, losing only to the Peruvian Grandmaster Jorge Cori.
Notable Achievements:
Some of his most noteworthy accomplishments include winning the Colombian Chess Championship five times (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014), the Central American and Caribbean U-20 Chess Championship (2008), and the Pan American U-20 Chess Championship (2008).
Arenas represented Colombia in seven Chess Olympiads (2006-2018), contributing significantly to the nation's chess victories. In 2014, he won a bronze medal as third board for the Colombian team at the 41st Chess Olympiad in Tromsø.