The young guns of world chess
ANISH Giri 20, Fabiano Caruana 22, Ding Liren and Welsey So, both 21, are the “young guns” likely to challenge Magnus Carlsen for the world title in a few years,
Add to that mix is 15-year-old Chinese sensation Wei Yi, who is rated over 2700. In February last week, he competed in the Gibraltar Masters tournament and finished in a share of the third to 11th spots. This boosted Wei’s live rating to 2706 and lifted him to the 40th place in the list of top chess players. He is now the youngest player ever to cross the 2700 mark, breaking the record held by Carlsen for quite some time.
Anish Giri is a Russian-born Dutch prodigy and achieved the GM title at the age of 14 years and 7 months. He is a three-time Dutch Champion (2009, 2011 and 2012) and won Corus (now Tata Steel) B Group in 2010. He has represented the Netherlands at three Olympiads (2010, 2012, 2014).
In January 2012, Giri won the 54th annual Reggio Emilia tournament. Despite being the lowest-rated player in a Category 20 tournament (average rating 2744), he scored four wins, two losses and four draws for a clear first place (performance rating of 2823).
In this year’s Tata Steel A ,he shared second place with So, just behind Carlsen. He handed Wesley’s only loss in this tournament in an epic battle that lasted 111 moves and eight hrs and 40 minutes.
He defeated Peter Svidler in the first round of the on-going 3rd Fide Grand Prix in Tbilisi, Georgia, and became the ninth player to breach 2800. He now stands at No. 4 in the world.
Fabiano Luigi Caruana is an American-born Italian GM , a former prodigy and the No. 2 ranked player in the world.
On July 15, 2007 Caruana became a GM at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 20 days—the youngest grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United States at that time surpassing the record set by Nakamura (His record in the USA was later beaten by Samuel Sevian). In October 2014, he achieved a rating of 2844, becoming the third highest rated player in history.
Ding Liren is a Chinese GM. In 2009, at the age of 16, he became the youngest ever to win the title of Chinese Chess Champion. In April 2011 he again won for the second time, and won the title again the next year at the age of 19. He took part in the World Cup 2011, but was defeated in the first round by Wesley So. His rating is 2755 (No. 22 in the world).
Much has been written in this column about So. He has now an on-going “rivalry” with Hikaru Nakamura on who is the best American player. That will be settled in the 2015 US Championship in April.
After that, he will proceed to Azerbaijan for the Gashimov Memorial which will be participated by World champion Carlsen (Norway, 2865), Caruana (Italy, 2811), Giri (Netherlands,2803). Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria,2800), former world champion Viswanathan Anand (India, 2797), So (USA, 2788), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 2783), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France, 2775), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2759) and Teimour Radjabov (2731),both of Azerbaijan.
This is his strongest tournament ever (Category 22) that will test his skills to the limit. Tata Steel A was “just” a Category 20.
Just asking. Why have we not paid our arrears with Fide for over eight months now? Our players cannot compete in Fide tournaments as we are blacklisted. It is a shame if it is allegedly still not paid. If Wesley had not transferred to the USCF it would be a crisis. Now, Pinoy players ratings are not published and updated.
CEPCA. Our tournament for February will be this Sunday at our usual venue, Handuraw Gorordo at 2 p.m. There will be two categories-A and B. Format is 5 rounds Swiss with a time control of 20 minutes. Children of members will be allowed to play and will also be classified into A or B. Come and enjoy!