César Augusto Blanco Gramajo

César Augusto Blanco Gramajo (born 14 January 1959) is a Guatemalan chess player who holds the ICCF title of Grandmaster (2003) and the FIDE title of Candidate Master (2018).[1] He primarily plays correspondence chess, and has twice been Latin American champion in this modality.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Blanco and the second or maternal family name is Gramajo.
César Blanco
Blanco in 2003
Full nameCésar Augusto Blanco Gramajo
CountryGuatemala
Born14 January 1959 (1959-01-14) (age 64)
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Title
FIDE rating2065 (March 2020)
Peak rating2136 (January 2011)
ICCF rating2479 (October 2021)
ICCF peak rating2594 (October 2005)

Early life

Blanco was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala. He received a business administration degree from San Carlos University in Guatemala, and his thesis was awarded as the best in the country (1985) in the economics area. He also got an MBA – graduated as cum laude – in Finance from Francisco Marroquin University, also in Guatemala City.

Chess career

Blanco started to play chess in 1972 when the Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky called the attention of the world toward chess. He also represented his country in the 31st Chess Olympiad in Moscow, 1994.

By post, Blanco started to play around 1974 (when he was only 15 years old). The passion for the game increased with the years, but professional activity limited his participation in "live tournaments". On the other side, postal chess became his main source of activity to keep up to date with chess.

He won the XIII and XIV CADAP zonal championships. He received the CADAP Master title in 1985, then the IM title from ICCF in 1996, the SIM title in 1999 and he became the first Postal Chess Grandmaster (GM) title of the Mexican, Central America and Caribbean area in 2003.

Due to working reasons, Blanco left Guatemala and became a member of the US Chess Federation around 1998. He played several tournaments around the US and got his FIDE rating under the US federation.

Currently, Blanco is living back in Guatemala and continues to play chess over the board and postal chess.

Occupation

Blanco was vice president and director of finance and administration of Kellogg's Latin America region from 2000 until his early retirement in 2007. He previously worked for Bank of America, PepsiCo, and Citibank.

Personal life

Blanco married Vivian Bock in 1983, and the couple have three children: María Alejandra, an architect living in Germany, Pablo Andrés (an organizational Psychologyst) and Valeria.

Post retirement activities

Blanco -already in his retirement- began to stream on Twitch in September 2021. His nickname is (Betobetun),[2] focusing on tactics, study and analysis of games..

References
  1. Dunne, Alex (January 2, 2010). "The January '10 Check is in the Mail". The United States Chess Federation.
  2. twitch.tv/betobetun
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