Today's Edition
Kuumar Shyam (Abu Dhabi)
Serbia's Igor Mladonovic won the Veterans Championship for the over-55 age group at the ongoing 30th Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival being held at two city hotels on the Corniche. The champion won the gold medal with six-and-half points after a strong competition among 35 players.
An online competition among title holders, with a prize money of $10,000, was won remotely when American GM, once the youngest for the United States, Hikaru Nakamura took the Blitz Chess Championship title with 756 players in the fray.
The category events are part of the multi-faceted tournament with the world's largest participation of more than 2,200 players across all sections of the sporting database in chess.
However, the day's proceedings in Abu Dhabi were also highlighted by an off-the-board development when news emerged that one of the big names among the participants here in the Emirate got his accolade confirmed as the youngest Grandmaster (GM) in the world.
Türkiye prodigy Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus has had his GM title confirmed, the nod from the world body coming almost five months to the day he achieved his final norm, becoming the youngest grandmaster at 12 years, nine months, and 29 days.
Only three players in chess history have achieved the title at a younger age: GMs Abhimanyu Mishra, Sergey Karjakin, and Gukesh Dommaraju. The young boy GM has not had much of a good run after some initial promise even as he has stepped into his teen years in June.
Erdogmus came to Abu Dhabi on the back of a solid year, establishing himself as one of the world's greatest prodigies, and breaking GM Judit Polgar's historic 2,600 rating record from 1989.
He briefly surpassed the 2,600 barrier again in the Emirate, but a draw in the fourth round and a loss in the next made him drop below again. Despite the setback, a good finish will lead to another historic record as the youngest chess player ever to have a published 2,600 rating.
After six rounds, seven players were bunched at the top even as GM Leon Mendonca drew with GM Volodar Murzin to maintain his lead among the leader group. Indian GMs Raunak Sadhwani and Pranav V defeated GM Bharath Subramaniyam H and GM Klementy Sychev respectively to join the top-table rivals of the day.
Mendonca, Murzin, Pranav, Sadhwani, GMs Nodirbek Yakubboev and Shamsiddin Vokhidov (both Uzbekistan), and David Paravyan, Russian GM playing under the banner of the world chess body (FIDE), are the seven players with five out of possible six points.
Meanwhile, second seed and GM Aravindh Chithambaram defeated Tong Xiao of China to inch up in a timely fashion while GM Adhiban B drew with fellow title holder S L Narayanan to stay in the hunt.
Also, International Master-elect Fide Master Goutham Krishna bounced back with a victory over Italian GM Lorenzo Lodici. Dana Ozola, Vice President of FIDE, opened the sixth round's competition in the presence of Hussein Abdullah Al Khouri, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Chess and Mind Games Club.
FIDE officials, President Arkady Dvorkovich and his deputy Viswanathan Anand, and many heads of Arab countries' chess federations, are in the city to attend centenary celebrations of the sport.
