Fourteen-year-old Turkish chess prodigy GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus has beaten 35-year-old world number 15 GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 3.5-2.5 in Clash of Generations II. Victory in the six-game classical match in the Monte Carlo Chess Club saw Erdogmus climb to 2669 and world number 47 on the live rating list, just four months after he entered the top 100. If confirmed on the official FIDE January rating list Erdogmus will have beaten GM Magnus Carlsen‘s record as the youngest player ever to enter the top 50 by a full year.
Erdogmus is a phenomenal chess talent. He crossed 2400 at age 11, became a grandmaster at age 12, crossed 2600 at 13, and holds the record as the highest-rated player before turning 13, 14, and 15—GM Wei Yi‘s rating of 2634 in 2014 is the highest a 14-year-old has previously been rated.
It was only four months ago that Erdogmus reached the top 100 after gaining 16 points by beating GM Peter Svidler 4-2 in the classical portion of the first Clash of Generations, held in Marseille, France. Only one astonishing player, GM Judit Polgar, had ever joined the top 100 at a younger age.
Polgar took another five years to reach the top 50, however, while it’s taken just four months for Erdogmus to make the leap.
If confirmed on the FIDE rating list for January 1, Erdogmus will have smashed the current record of Carlsen entering the top 50 at the age of 15 years and seven months by a full year.
His latest climb came after the second Clash of Generations, a six-game match held in Monaco and sponsored, like the first, by Turkish entrepreneur and investor Evren Ucok. Erdogmus’ opponent was French star Vachier-Lagrave, who notably inflicted a defeat on Erdogmus in the FIDE Grand Swiss in September.
Back then the Frenchman already talked about the upcoming match, and commented, “He’s a huge talent, obviously, and more than a talent, a reasonably seasoned top player in the making.”
He’s a huge talent, obviously, and more than a talent, a reasonably seasoned top player in the making.
—Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus after their Grand Swiss game
Three months later and it was Erdogmus, once again coached by GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who came out on top.
The match was notable for the five draws all being relatively quick, over in 30, 34, 23, 24, and 21 moves, with no significant chances, although Vachier-Lagrave had some regrets about offering a draw at the end of game two.
There’s by no means a clear path to a win, but the computer gives around a +0.7 advantage for White. Vachier-Lagrave commented after the match was over: “I shouldn’t have offered a draw, but I was frustrated with the position and with my play in general. But it was not a big chance that I missed.”
When Vachier-Lagrave had White we got the Caro-Kann for the first two games, while Erdogmus played the Ruy Lopez in all three of his white games. The first two were quiet, and when Erdogmus went for the Exchange Variation in the last there was no reason to expect drama, especially when queens were exchanged on move 12. “I improved my endgame skills,” said Erdogmus, in brief comments after the match.
I improved my endgame skills.
—Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus
We got to see that in a convincing win.
With one game to go, it was all or nothing for Vachier-Lagrave, but Erdogmus switched to the Petroff Defense and found a brilliant refutation after his opponent sacrificed on f7. 16…Bf6!! forced liquidation into a 21-move draw.
Vachier-Lagrave was left to regret going for a knight sacrifice on move 13.
The French star had no complaints about losing the match, commenting: “He calculated a lot better than I did in lots of games, especially yesterday, so I think this was the main difference.”
He calculated a lot better than I did in lots of games.
—Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus
That’s high praise coming from a player as good at calculation as Vachier-Lagrave.
The obvious next record on the menu for Erdogmus is to overtake Wei as the youngest player ever to cross 2700. He has a year to do that, but first he has some more big events coming up. On December 26-30 the 14-year-old will play the World Rapid & Blitz Championships in Doha, Qatar, while in January he’ll become the youngest player ever to compete in the Tata Steel Chess Masters.
No one will be looking forward to facing him!
