Mark Bluvshtein is a Canadian chess player, who achieved the title of Grandmaster (GM) in 2004 at the age of 16, making him the youngest GM in the Americas at the time. Born on 20 April 1988 in Yaroslavl, Russia, Bluvshtein moved to Israel in 1993 before settling in Canada in 1999.
Bluvshtein won the Canadian Junior Chess Championship in 2004 and 2005 and represented Canada in six Chess Olympiads, from 2004 to 2014. In 2006, he tied for 1st-3rd with Luke McShane and Vadim Zvjaginsev at the 4NCL Spring Chess Congress in West Bromwich, and in 2009 he came in first at the Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromsø.
Bluvshtein also won the Queen City Classic in Cincinnati, Ohio in March 2011, scoring ahead of Yury Shulman. He won the Queen’s University Championship in March 2012 and attended York University in Toronto, Canada from 2012 to 2016. Other notable achievements include winning the Toronto Closed Championship in April 2011 and the Brantford International Open in October 2011.
Bluvshtein announced a temporary break from competitive chess in April 2012 to focus on his studies and other pursuits. He returned to competitive chess in February 2016, participating in the Canadian Zonal Championship and qualifying for the 2017 Chess World Cup, where he was eliminated in the first round.
Throughout his career, Bluvshtein has achieved several prestigious titles including International Master (2002), FIDE Master (2001), and Candidate Master (2000). He served as a coach for the Canadian Women’s team during the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey.