Nine-year-old London schoolboy Ethan Pang once again entered the history books when he set a new world record in June, becoming the youngest person ever to achieve a Masters rating of 2200 points.
At the Vezerkepto IM tournament in Budapest, Pang defeated three grandmasters in a row from the second to the fifth rounds. Granted, the defeated trio were well past their best, with ratings below 2400 compared to the normal GM level of 2500, but they all had decades of high-level experience.
The first player to play in the second round was Slovakia’s 33-year-old Milan Pacher. He performed poorly in the endgame and lost the piece in the 23rd move. Pang successfully resolved the piece after the 18th move.
Quick guide
Ethan Peng v Milan Pacher
exhibit
1 e4 c5 2 NF3e6 3 d4 CXD4 4 Nxd4 NC6 5 NC3 Qc7 6 g3NF6 7 Bg2 Nxd4 8 Qxd4 Bc5 9 Bf4 Bxd4 10 Bxc7 Ke7 11 Niobium 5 Boron 6 12 Bxb6 axb6 13 a3 d6 14 0-0-0 Road 8 15 Road 2 Ne8 16 RHD1 F6 No. 17 f4Ra5 18 c4Ra4 19 b3Ra8 20 e5 fxe5 twenty one FXE5 D5 No. 22 CXD5 EXD5 twenty three Rxd5 Be6 twenty four Receive 8 Receive 8 25 RXD8 KXD8 26 Kc2 NC7 27 NXC7 KXC7 28 Kc3g5 29 b4h6 30 Kd4 Bf5 31 Beryllium 4Beryllium 6 32 Bd5 Bc8 33 Bf7 Bh3 34 Bg6 Be6 35 Bd3 Bh3 36 Be4 Bc8 37 Bd5 Bh3 38 a4 Bd7 39 a5 ba4 40 axb6+ Kxb6 41 e6 1-0
Next up in the fourth round is Hungary’s Attila Chebe, 48, with her passive 32…Kh8? (f5!) Encountered a huge side attack with 35 c5 as the highlight! And 36 d5s! This was the most impressive of the three games.
Quick guide
Ethan Pang v Attila Czebe
exhibit
1 e4 g6 2 d4BG7 3 NC3d6 4 Be3 c6 5 Qd2 b5 6 g3BB7 7 Bg2ND7 8 f4 Qc7 9 ND1 NGF6 10 NF2 0-0 11 NE2 E5 12 c 3 13 0-0 Niobium 6 14 b3NFD7 15 RAC1 C5 16 g4 ex-husband 4 No. 17 Bxf4 rad8 18 NG3 Nf8 19 RF D1 C4 20 Qe7 twenty one BG5 f6 No. 22 Be3 d5 twenty three Re1 Qf7 twenty four Rf1 dxe4 25 Nfxe4 Bxe4 26 NXE4CXB3 27 axb3 neodymium 5 28 Bh6 Bxh6 29 Qxh6 Qg7 30 Qh3 Ne6 31 Qg3 Rf8 32 Rce1Kh8 33 c4 bxc4 34 bxc4 niobium 6 35 c5! NC8 36 d5! receive 5 37 NXF6 RXF6 38 Bxd5 Rxf1+ 39 Kxf1 Qf8+ 40 Qf3 1-0
In the fifth round, 54-year-old Hungarian player Zoltan Varga misjudged some midgame strategy and threw in the towel on move 23, when two pieces fell without any compensation.
Defeating GM three times in a Classical tournament for the under-10s is a unique achievement. The closest precedent occurred in Tashkent in 2014, when Nodirbek Abdusattorov, ranked sixth in the world, was only 9 years old at the time and defeated two powerful grandmasters with ratings respectively for 2600 and 2495.
After five rounds (11 in total), Pang scored 4 points and seemed on track to break the age record of 2300 set by Argentinian prodigy Faustino Oro, thus qualifying for the Fide Master (FM) title . Pang’s Fide rating is as high as 2292, so defeating India’s Alana Kolagatia in the postponed third round will be enough.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but unfortunately the pupil passed it up. This comes down to a mistake in move 14, where a central pawn push would gain materials, gain +2 on Stockfish, and likely lead to victory and breaking Oro’s world record.
Pang’s signature event ended with two losses, one to top seed and first prize winner Valeriy Neverov of Ukraine with 2,412 points. Pang’s overall score was 4.5/8, but he then had to miss the final two rounds and withdraw on Tuesday so that he could fly back to London with his father in time to start the new term at Westminster School on Wednesday.
All Vezerkepto Budapest matches can be viewed in match format on chess-results.com.
Pang is now nine years and five months old, and Oro’s 2300/FM age record is only a month ahead of him, so there will be no chance of breaking the Argentinian boy’s milestone. However, Javokhir Sindarov, who was second fastest to reach 2300 after Oro, achieved this rating at just 10 years and two months old. Pang was eight months away from becoming the second youngest person ever to reach 2,300.
Pang said his goal is to improve his skills next year to compete in more tournaments against highly rated opponents. In the long run, his goal is to be at the top of the world. His chess heroes are Mikhail Tal and Hikaru Nakamura, with the former sharing an aggressive and creative style. “It’s inspiring to watch him play. The way he manipulates the Cavaliers is like a magician.
Pang’s favorite starts were the “tricky” Scottish game and the counter-attacking Sicilian game. He advises ambitious teenagers to join adult chess clubs and compete in various tournaments. Besides chess, his main interest is music and he enjoys playing the violin.
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The IFI age ratings for September 2024 show that England’s Pang and Boudhana Sivanandan are the two best nine-year-olds in the world, with England’s Kushal Jahria and Scotland’s Louis Cheng ranked fourth and fifth respectively. Sivanandan will take the field next week in Budapest when she will become the youngest player to represent England in any competition or sport at the IFI Women’s Olympic Games.
Roman Shogdzhiev, the only non-British name listed, was one of the stars of the 2023 World Rapid Chess and Blitz Championship, where he defeated five grandmasters and took the distant second place A blitz/blitz rating above 2300. He was born in April 2015, two months away from surpassing Oro’s record.
This weekend, Paris will host the semi-finals and finals of the $175,000 chess.com Speed Championship, which will take place online in the early rounds but will feature a hybrid format in the final stages, with contestants sitting across from each other but in different game on the computer. Each game will last three hours, ranging from five-minute blitzes to one-minute bullets.
One of the semi-finals pits Magnus Carlsen against Hans Niemann, their first full meeting since the infamous 2022 Sinquefield Cup tie, The match sparked cheating accusations and a $100 million lawsuit; the other pitted Alireza Firouzja against Nakamura, a well-known streamer ranked No. 2 in the world.
The match is so close that Carlsen’s final against Firouzja or Nakamura could also have a surprising result, as both had defeated Carlsen in previous online finals. The time limit is quick, but it will be a high-caliber event that, despite some occasional missteps, should attract the expected large online audience.
3936: 1…Rg3+ 2 Kc2 Rg2+ 3 Kc3 Rxb2 4 Kxb2 Rxd5! 5 cxd5 Bd4+ and 6…Bxe5 win. If White tries 5 Rf7+ Ke6 6 Rc7 Rxd5! 7cxd5 Bd6! Attacking c7, Black maintains the bishop’s lead.
