Eugene Perelshteyn is an American International Grandmaster (GM) of chess. Born on February 8, 1980, in the city of Zhitomir, in the then Soviet Union (now Ukraine), he learned chess at an early age from his father Mikhail Perelshteyn, a professional player and coach.
He graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where he played on the university’s successful Pan-American chess teams. At UMBC, he was part of a team that won several Pan-American championships, and he personally achieved high-ranking results in many competitions.
He won the prestigious Samford Fellowship in 2001, which granted him both substantial financial support and access to top-level coaching, allowing him to focus on chess full time. He was awarded the title of International Grandmaster by FIDE in 2006.
Eugene Perelshteyn won the United States Chess League championship in 2006 with the team San Francisco Mechanics. He also won the 2007 SPICE Cup GM Invitational Tournament.
He co-authored several books including two volumes of 'Chess Openings for White, Explained' and 'Chess Openings for Black, Explained', writing these in 2007 with fellow GMs Roman Dzindzichashvili and Lev Alburt.
Apart from being an active competitor, he is also an influential chess teacher – having coached the chess team of Saint Louis University and maintaining an educational YouTube channel dedicated to teaching chess strategy.