A 10-year-old chess prodigy hailing from Argentina has beaten chess Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen in a Bullet game of chess.
Every sport periodically sees a surge of fresh, formidable talent making waves. It is always refreshing to see new faces come in to challenge champions of the sport. Each new generation brings its unique blend of athleticism, determination and innovation. One such sport is chess, where we see individuals from all over the globe show off their mighty tactical skills. Even people who are not overly familiar with the sport know who Magnus Carlsen is and how he has made quite an impact in the world of chess.
The 10-year-old "Golden Boy" Faustino Oro beat Magnus Carlsen yesterday in a bullet game!
— Chess.com (@chesscom) March 25, 2024
Messi of chess 🏆🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/eVDGqGjxFl
Yet, maintaining an unbroken winning streak proves elusive for everyone, even for a titan like Magnus Carlsen. He was recently defeated by a 10-year-old prodigy, Faustino Oro. According to Indy 100, the young chess player has already won matches against Grandmasters Daniel Naroditsky and Hikaru Nakamura. What made the 10-year-old boy's feat even more impressive was the fact that he beat Carlsen in a Bullet game. This is a variation of the traditional game where players are given less than three minutes per game with a total of 40 moves, forcing players to think and act fast. Oro uploaded a video showcasing their intense match on the virtual chessboard to his YouTube channel.
The short clip has over 56,110 views and 2.1K likes on the streaming site. Oro is relatively calm, given that he is going up against a seasoned chess veteran, and even remarks, "If I lose this, I can retire from chess." Towards the end, it becomes clear that Carlsen would lose and eventually retire from the game. Oro, who hails from Argentina, has been nicknamed "The Messi of Chess" owing to his incredible skills in the game, according to Chess.com. We will hopefully see more of Oro's performance in the coming years, and he might just get that Grandmaster title, seeing how he beat Carlsen in a Bullet game.
Fruitful Europe sojourn to beautiful Arco and the 45th International Citta di Arco. 5.5/9, TPR 2123, 170+ pts, provisional World #1 in Under 8 rankings :) Bravissimo!! pic.twitter.com/xHkS3OCrA5
— Kaushik (@kaushiksriram) October 15, 2023
Another prodigy making headlines is Ashwath Kaushik, an 8-year-old boy who lives in Singapore but was born in India. A few weeks back, he became the youngest person to defeat a chess Grandmaster by winning a match against 37-year-old Jacek Stopa from Poland. According to Chess.com, he achieved this remarkable accomplishment during this month's Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open.
Kaushik had almost missed the title of being the youngest person to win a chess tournament when Serbia's Leonid Ivanovic replaced the previous youngest player, Awonder Liang, to become the first ever player to defeat a grandmaster in a classic tournament at 8 years and 11 months old. However, the title of the youngest chess prodigy was soon scooped away by Kaushik, who happens to be 4 months younger than Ivanovic. The title of being called a Grandmaster is not earned easily by any chess player and only the best are crowned by the World Chess Federation.