12-year-old ‘Messi of Chess’ eyes youngest grandmaster record, but undaunted by pressure
For a boy knocking on the doors of history, Faustino Oro is remarkably nonchalant about the pressures of expectations that come along with being too good too early in his career. Having ticked off his first Grand Master norm and crossed the 2500 rating threshold a fortnight ago at the Legends & Prodigies tournament in Madrid, Oro finds himself just two norms away from being the youngest grandmaster in history, a record which currently belongs to Indian-origin prodigy Abhimanyu Mishra. Oro still has five months to break Mishra’s record. The chase of becoming the youngest Grand Master in history has infamously been known to do strange things to the form of prodigies in the past. But Oro dismisses any talk of pressure with a shrug and a smile. While speaking to The Indian Express from his home in Badalona, Oro said, “There is no pressure about the record. Like I say in all my interviews, I try to play my best chess and enjoy chess. For me, it’s a sport.” The 12-year-old prodigy added, “I am not focusing on the record of being the youngest grandmaster in history. I will try to do that, obviously. But I am more focused on playing my style of chess and trying to improve a bit more every day. And well, if I improve a bit more each day, the grandmaster title will appear.” Oro was introduced to chess by his father at the age of six, Alejandro, to prevent the restless boy of six from kicking the football against walls for hours at a stretch while they were in COVID lockdown. In these six years, he’s already become the world’s youngest international master (a record now broken), the youngest player ever to cross 2500 rating, and the second youngest to earn a Grandmaster norm. He’s also defeated players like Magnus Carlsen thrice, and Hikaru Nakamura in online games besides playing against five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand in exhibition games.
Iconic St. Louis Chess Club to bring memories back; will host an exhibition between Vishy Anand and Garry Kasparov
Two chess legends, the former world champions, Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand, will turn back the clock as they face off against each other in October in a special exhibition match named ‘Clutch Chess’. Both players will face each other in a Chess960 (Fischer Random) match that will feature 12 games. This exhibition match is part of the iconic Saint Louis Chess Club’s re-launching of its newly expanded campus.. The club will also host a rapid tournament that will see the World’s number one-ranked Magnus Carlsen, second-ranked Hikaru Nakamura, World’s number three Fabiano Caruana, and the reigning World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju competing. The Anand-Kasparov 12 games will be played between 7th and 11th October at the St. Louis Chess Club. The event will feature a $144,000 prize fund and will have Anand and Kasparov playing games in the rapid and blitz time controls with what the organizers called “an innovative scoring system designed to captivate both players and fans”. “Saint Louis has become the beating heart of global chess. The vision, the commitment, and the passion for the game here are unmatched anywhere in the world. It’s an honor to return and play in a city that has redefined what it means to support and grow the chess community,” Kasparov was quoted as saying in a press release from the St Louis Chess Club. The St Louis Chess Club will also host players like World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura, World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana, and World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju in what will be the highest-rated chess tournament of the year. The event will have 4,12,000 US Dollars in prize money, including daily win bonuses and a Champion’s Jackpot.
