Sevan My Friend: Rest in Piece

Brad and Sevan — we shared some good times.

This weekend marks a year since we lost our friend Sevan Muradian. It’s still hard to believe. It also occurs to me that as the years go by, fewer and fewer people involved in the local chess scene will know who Sevan was and what he did for chess. So I will tell some of you who Sevan Muradian was, and for those who knew him, remind you of what did our chess community. I shared a version of these observations with many of you a year ago.

• Sevan was a giant…. a force of nature, on the Illinois, the United States and the World Chess stages. He was the pioneer and trendsetter in internationalizing US chess.
• Sevan, through his own organization ran 266, events and worked with many other organizers on countless events all over the world. One of Sevan’s shining accomplishments was to bring norm events to US shores where players could earn international titles. He ran 31 such norm events, but importantly inspired many others across the US to do the same. Sevan is the one who kicked this phenomena off in earnest….and in so doing raised the level and of quality of play in this country immeasurably, and even more importantly, gave many US based players the opportunity to earn their international titles without having to leave the country. In doing so, Sevan put the United States chess community on equal footing with the global chess scene.
• Sevan was an ardent supporter of scholastic chess and high end junior chess in all its forms. Sevan was the go to organizer and TD for the Denker, the Barber and Girls invitational qualifying events in Illinois. He did this without charge. He arranged for or provided venues for these event — again, at no cost. He was a good friend, supporter, served as the Director for the Warren Junior program and the Susan Polgar Foundation.
• Sevan was a doer — he had boundless energy and juggled more balls in the air than most people can imagine. Sevan ran deep and wide. He was a thinker, he was wise, he knew a lot about a lot of things. He wanted to exert an influence on all of the 64 squares of life; and he did a pretty good job of it.

If you wish to honor Sevan’s memory, let me suggest this: be the best you can be in your chess related activities and in life….and always look for the opportunity to help someone else out to improve their chess game…or for that matter, their lot in life. That’s how Sevan rolled.