Mauricio Flores Ríos is a Chilean Chess Grandmaster who was born on September 10, 1988 in Viña del Mar, Chile. He achieved Grandmaster status in 2009, becoming the third Chilean-born chess player to be awarded the title. He currently lives in the United States and plays for the Saint Louis University Chess Club.
Ríos began playing chess at the age of seven and became serious about the game when he turned 11. He won the Chilean Junior Chess Championship in 2004, and his first international competition was the Under 16 World Youth Chess Olympiad, where the Chilean team finished ninth. In 2007, he competed in the American Continental Chess Championship, representing Chile.
Ríos studied at the University Federico Santa Maria in Valparaíso, Chile from 2005 to 2009, but left to focus on his chess career. He moved to the U.S. in 2010 to study at the University of Texas at Dallas. He graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.
Ríos has competed in numerous international chess tournaments. In 2014, he placed first and won the gold medal in the North American Chess Championship. He also co-authored a book with British Grandmaster Neil McDonald named "The Modernized Caro-Kann," which was published in 2019.