Although Yagiz Erdogmus has not yet reached the same level of recognition as the group of Indian and Uzbek teenagers who broke into the chess world top 10 in 2024, this 13-year-old Turkish player is regarded as one of the most promising talents on the international stage, receiving increasing acclaim for his dynamic classical play. His trajectory mirrors that of Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja, Fabiano Caruana, and others who made early records.
Erdogmus holds the title of the youngest current grandmaster and is the fourth youngest GM in history. He recently approached a significant milestone after an impressive performance in the Turkish League in Ankara, pushing his Fide world rating to 2599, just shy of the prestigious 2600 level—a threshold that typically denotes a top-tier grandmaster and correlates roughly to a spot in the world’s top 200 players.
The record for the youngest player to reach 2600 was set in 2015 by John M Burke from the US at 14 years and two months, a name relatively unknown to many chess enthusiasts. Burke achieved this by taking advantage of a flaw in Fide regulations, catapulting from below 2300 to 2603 between rating lists, only to slip back under 2600 in the following eight years.
As such, many chess aficionados argue that the genuine previous record holder is Wei Yi of China, who reached 2600 at 14 years and four months. Yi later became the youngest player to achieve a 2700 rating at 15 years old and is currently a mainstay in the world top 10 following a hiatus for academic pursuits.
Erdogmus will have the chance to claim the 2600 age record when he competes on the third board for Turkey at next month’s Olympiad in Budapest, featuring 193 nations, where he could also contend for an individual board performance gold medal. His father commented on his approach: “Yagiz has a hobby that he really likes. He is just enjoying it and not focusing on the records that much.”
Erdogmus’s recent games indicate that he is sharp and tactically formidable against lower-ranked opponents, achieving draws against many higher-rated players, with losses only to those at or near the elite level. Keep an eye out for his upcoming achievements in the years to come.
Prior to Budapest, Erdogmus will represent the Chessy team, third seeds in the ongoing World Rapid and Blitz Team Championship, set to start on Friday in Astana, Kazakhstan, and which runs until August 6.
Top players like Carlsen, the world No. 1, and Ding Liren, the reigning world champion, are expected to participate and may face each other over the board.
Carlsen leads the WR Chess team, which clinched victory in the 2023 event. His lineup features world No. 1 woman Hou Yifan, two-time title challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi, and emerging talents from India, Uzbekistan, and Germany. According to the rules, each team must include at least one non-professional player who has never been rated above 2000; this category includes Wadim Rosenstein, the sponsor of WR Chess. Ding, meanwhile, heads an all-Chinese team that includes Wei Yi, Yu Yangyi, and women’s world champion Ju Wenjun.
After seven of the nine rounds of the 2024 British Championship in Hull, the nine frontrunners are separated by a mere half point, making a tiebreak on Sunday afternoon increasingly likely to determine the champion.
The current leaders with two rounds remaining are top-seeded GM David Howell, GM Gawain Jones, IM Ameet Ghasi, IM Matthew Wadsworth, and IM Svyatoslav Bazakutska, each with 5.5 points from 7 rounds. Defending champion GM Michael Adams, GM Luke McShane, GM Stuart Conquest, and IM Shreyas Royal follow closely behind with 5 points each. Additionally, 13 other players have amassed 4.5 points so far. Bazakutska is a 16-year-old Ukrainian residing in Britain.
The leaderboard could have looked quite different if 15-year-old Royal had converted a significant advantage against Jones in round five instead of settling for a draw. Instead, Wadsworth secured a key victory over Royal in round six.
All matches from the British Championship can be tracked live on lichess (starting at 2:30 PM on Saturday and 10 AM on Sunday, featuring move-by-move commentary from the Stockfish engine).
Although Adams has drawn four games, he remains a close contender behind the leaders and is set to make a push for his ninth British title, just one shy of the late Jonathan Penrose’s record, during the final two rounds this weekend.
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Nine-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan has scored 3/7, including hard-fought draws with grandmasters Nigel Davies and Paul Motwani. In her match against Motwani in the sixth round, she narrowly missed a winning opportunity with a piece and the game at move 41, which would have set a record for the youngest female to ever defeat a GM—a title currently held by Carissa Yip, the reigning U.S. women’s champion, who achieved this at age 10.
The world’s top male and female grandmasters are set to gather in London this October for the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League, now in its second season and already recognized as one of the significant international chess competitions. The event will take place at Friends House, Euston, from October 3-12.
The announcement revealed six icons as team leaders, including the world’s top two, Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. Each team, comprising six members, will also include two male elite grandmasters and two female players.
Notably, the roster of elite grandmasters features seven players from the current world top 12, which includes Carlsen, Nakamura, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and former world champion Vishy Anand (all from India), along with Wei Yi from China and Nodirbek Abdusattorov from Uzbekistan.
The women’s squad is led by the global top duo, Hou and Ju. Additionally, rising stars like India’s Vaishali Rameshbabu, world title challenger Tan Zhongyi from China, and “chess queen” Alexandra Kosteniuk from Switzerland, will be participating.
This impressive lineup is expected to draw considerable interest from spectators. Unfortunate, however, is the absence of any English players listed among the participants thus far. Six junior players are yet to be announced, and it is hoped that Royal will be among them.
3931: 1….Rxd5! 2 Qxd5 Qf6+ 3 Kg1 Qxf1+! 4 Kxf1 Nxe3+ and Nxd5 gives Black a knight advantage with a winning endgame.
