Jeff Sarwer (born May 14, 1978, Kingston, Canada) is a former child chess prodigy whose charismatic personality and chess talent made him a well known media figure. His chess career and his family's unconventional lifestyle was the subject of many articles and TV shows.

Jeff's attacking playing style was often compared to Bobby Fischer, and a match drawn against him by another young chess player, Joshua Waitzkin, was the inspiration for the climax in the film Searching for Bobby Fischer.

Jeff Sarwer won the under 10 World Youth Chess Championship in Puerto Rico in 1986 representing Canada.

When Jeff was eight, he was believed by many to be one of the strongest prodigies in the history of the game. Allen Kaufman, head of the American Chess Foundation, said, "Jeff at nine is stronger than Bobby was at 11." Bruce Pandolfini said, "Of the several thousand kids I've taught, Jeff is certainly the most amazing young player I've ever seen."

Jeff learned the rules of chess at the age of 4 from his 2-year-older sister Julia and at age of 6 started to play at the Manhattan Chess Club, which was one of the most prestigious chess clubs in the world at the time. Bruce Pandolfini was the manager of the club, and being impressed with them gave him and his sister free life memberships which were usually reserved for grandmasters.

Jeff used to entertain large crowds by playing 40 people at the same time known as simultaneous chess, every Canada Day from the age of 7 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. He also used to show up and play speed chess at Washington Square Park in New York City, where large amounts of people gathered to watch his games.

At the age of 7 Jeff's enthusiasm for the game caught the attention of Grandmaster Edmar Mednis and he invited him to analyze the 1986 World Championship Match between Kasparov-Karpov on PBS. Jeff and his sister Julia (who was also a world champion for girls under 10) continued to do this for the rematch in 1987 as well. After this Jeff and Julia became well known in media circles and appeared on various talk shows and were the subject of a documentary.

Magazines such as GQ and Sports Illustrated wrote articles about Jeff and his family, often highlighting their bizarre lifestyle and questioning his safety and chess career under his father's care.

Jeff's father didn't allow Jeff to continue his chess career when it became apparent that he wouldn't be able to keep full control over Jeff's life. He moved the family away from New York City and ran into trouble with The Children's Aid Society of Ontario. A featured article in Vanity Fair magazine by John Colapinto detailed child abuse of Jeff and Julia and prompted the C.A.S. to take him and his sister into protective custody.

Jeff and Julia ran away from the C.A.S. back to their father and hid out from authorities in order to not be taken away into custody again. The Sarwers lived in various countries and got used to living an anonymous lifestyle.

In 1993 the film Searching for Bobby Fischer was released and Jeff Sarwer's character was portrayed as "Jonathan Poe". In the film's final game Jonathan Poe was offered a draw and lost, but in reality Jeff Sarwer and Josh Waitzkin drew the match and shared the championship title. At the time that the game was played, Jeff was 7 and Josh 9 years old. The only other tournament game played between them was in December 1985 and won by Jeff.

After he disappeared at a very young age, many people thought Jeff wouldn't be seen playing chess again. In September 2007 Jeff resurfaced to the chess scene apparently without training and entered a 30 minute semi-rapid tournament at Malbork castle in Poland. He finished in third place with a score of 7/9 in a group of 86 players including four Grandmasters. Since he had no active chess rating, he was given a provisional Elo rating of 2300 FIDE but seemed to perform above that level.

Jeff has traveled extensively to many countries and currently is a businessman and real estate professional in Poland and Eastern Europe. He speaks five languages and has various hobbies.

Jeff has been seen at two major poker tournaments. On February 22, 2009 Jeff won third place and 29,760 Euro at the European Masters of Poker tournament in Tallinn, Estonia among a field of 248 players. He also won 7000 Euro on the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Prague in December 2008, finishing 54th among a field of 570 players.