The best players under 16, today and ten years ago
This year’s Tata Steel Masters is an exceptionally young tournament in terms of the players’ ages. Anyone looking at the participant lists of the Masters and the Challengers will find two players who stand out as being particularly young. In the Masters, Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus (14) is competing. In the Challengers, Faustino Oro (12) is taking part. Quite a lot can be expected of both of them in these tournaments.
Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus is Turkey’s rising junior star and, with his results, is even surpassing the three-years-older Ediz Gürel, who is no slouch himself. Gürel, for example, defeated world champion Gukesh at the Grand Swiss in Samarkand. At present, the two youngsters top the Turkish Elo ranking with 2658 and 2645 respectively and belong to the world’s top 100. In Turkey, as in many other Asian countries, chess is promoted as an educational tool and is experiencing a significant upswing.
Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus | Photo: FIDE/ Michal Walusza
Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus’s performances are particularly outstanding. At the age of 13 years, 3 months and 28 days, he became the youngest player ever to reach an Elo rating of 2600 or higher. Until then, the record had been held by the American John Burke, who reached the mark at the age of 14 years and two months.
With these achievements, Erdogmus is currently operating in the performance range of the young Magnus Carlsen. Twenty years ago, Magnus Carlsen stood at 2625 Elo, but improved to 2698 later in the same year.
Grandmaster Dorian Rogozenco delves into Fischer’s openings, and retraces the development of his repertoire. What variations did Fischer play, and what sources did he use to arm himself against the best Soviet players? Mihail Marin explains Fischer’s particular style and his special strategic talent in annotated games against Spassky, Taimanov and other greats. Karsten Müller is not just a leading international endgame expert, but also a true Fischer connoisseur.
Even younger and perhaps even stronger is Faustino Oro. The Argentine-born player, who now lives in Spain with his family, is the youngest player ever to surpass the 2500 Elo mark. Born in October 2013, Faustino Oro is only 12 years old. In his short career as a tournament player, Faustino Oro has already played more than 1,300 games that have found their way into the databases—of Bobby Fischer, just over 1,000 games are recorded there.
Like a fine wine, the Four Knights only improves with age, establishing itself as an extremely effective way of meeting 1…e5. On the outside this opening seems deceptively quiet, yet apparently natural moves can often lead to some devastating attacks.
Most of Oro’s 1,300 games, however, are online blitz games. Bobby Fischer did not have this option at the time. Online platforms undoubtedly play a major role, not only in popularising chess among children and teenagers, but also in helping rapid improvement in playing strength. Anyone who wants to can play for hours every day and continuously improve without ever having to leave home. Alireza Firouzja made a comment to that effect years ago, after breaking into the world elite: “All those hours of blitz on the chess servers must have been good for something.”
For spectators, it will be exciting to see how the youngsters fare in a field of “oldies.” Iti s hard to believe, but in the Masters, Anish Giri (born 1994) is the “tournament senior.”
A comparison between the best young players today and ten years ago is interesting. Erdogmus leads the Elo list of players under 16. Andy Woodward from the United States follows in second place as another player rated over 2600, though at some distance. Faustino Oro is already seventh. The other names are not yet very well known, but one should probably start remembering them.
Ten years earlier, the above-mentioned American John Burke topped the list of under-16 players. However, he stagnated and failed to make it into the world elite. Some others progressed further or at least established themselves as very strong tournament players. Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Alireza Firouzja reached the absolute world elite. Many other players, however, more or less disappeared from tournament chess.
Which of today’s best young players will be found among the world elite in ten years’ time?
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