Alder Escobar Forero (born July 29, 1964) is a Colombian chess player who has earned the International Master and International Grandmaster titles in 1988 and 1999, respectively. Born in Bogota, Forero is the first Colombian to become a Grandmaster.
Forero became the national Junior Chess Champion in 1982 and 1983, leading him to represent Colombia in the World Chess Juvenile Championship held in Denmark. In 1989, he participated in the Sofitel World Open Championship held in Cannes, where he placed 14th.
At the age of 35, Forero won the 2000 Continental Championship in Colombia, earning an invitation to compete at the FIDE (International Chess Federation) World Chess Championships in New Delhi, India.
Forero played for Colombia in nine Chess Olympiads - in 1984, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2006. His performance at the Olympiad in Dresden in 2008 earned him the title of a FIDE trainer.
Forero has also completed a Master’s degree in Sports Management and has been a chess teacher at the University of Los Andes in Bogota.
He is known for his unique application of the French Defence and the Caro-Kann Defence techniques in gameplay.