Mohammed Seder was five years old when he began solving chess puzzles after school in his hometown of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank. His father, Naji Sider, a former Palestinian national chess champion, noticed the habit and began to suspect he had passed his talent on. He started training his son, and by age 10 the boy was competing.

Now 17, Seder is Palestine's highest-ranked player, with a FIDE rating of 2235. That figure measures a player's strength through results against other rated opponents. He has won the Palestinian National Chess Championship twice and regularly represents Palestine at international championships and chess olympiads. As a younger player he also took Arab championship titles in the under-8, under-10 and under-14 categories.

Chess runs in the family. His 12-year-old sister, Randa, recently won the 2026 Palestine Women's Classical Chess Championship. At the latest FIDE Chess Olympiad, held in September in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Palestine fielded teams in both the Open and Women's sections. Seder stayed home because of upcoming school exams, but Randa travelled and achieved strong results.

Speaking to Middle East Eye, Seder said competing has taken him to more than 20 countries. He described representing Palestine as both a source of pride and a duty. "I also feel I have a responsibilty to show the world that Palestine has a lot of very smart and very good people," he said. At school, he added, teachers know who he is before they ever teach him.

His preparation is methodical. Once he knows an opponent, he studies that player's style, openings and handling of difficult positions, then takes advice from his coaches. He also stresses sleep and diet, recommending carbohydrates that are not too heavy. He believes he once lost a game in Dusseldorf, Germany, after eating too much at a Turkish restaurant because the food was "too delicious". When he cannot travel, he plays daily on platforms such as Lichess and Chess.com.

Next spring he will sit the Tawjihi, the General Secondary Education Certificate, in a society that places great value on education and reports a youth literacy rate of 99 percent. He hopes strong results will win him a scholarship to study computer science or engineering in the United States or Europe. His first choice is Saint Louis University in Missouri, known for its top-ranked collegiate chess programme. He says he would happily go elsewhere if that fails, and that he intends to come back. "My land is much more important to me than chess," he said.

Life under occupation, he says, has narrowed his options. Checkpoints and military activity make trips from Hebron to Ramallah, Nablus or Jenin hard and sometimes dangerous. By his account, a journey of about 60 kilometres can take four or five hours by car, and sometimes more than 12. Hebron lies close to Israeli settlements, and settler attacks and soldier violence have intensified in recent years. Over the weekend, according to Hebron Mayor Yousef Jaabari, the Israeli military levelled a whole neighbourhood and forcibly displaced at least 2,670 Palestinians in collective punishment for an attack on an army checkpoint outside the city.

Seder recalled being held at the border on the way to a tournament in Kuwait because he lacked his Palestinian national ID. On another occasion, he said, soldiers made his car stop and left the family waiting outside for two hours for no reason. About two months ago, he said, Israeli soldiers broke into the family home at night and arrested his father, who was released several hours later.

Money is another obstacle, as corporate backing for chess in Palestine is scarce. Seder's next goal is the FIDE International Master title, which requires a rating of 2400 and games against players who already hold it. He says that means three or four tournaments a month. "In 2026, I have only played in one tournament. If I continue living in Palestine, my chess career will end," he said.