Chess - The Scotsman 20/02/2012

AIDED by ever more powerful computers and more than four million game databases, chess prodigies, once rare, are not only mushrooming but are also setting new age records. The years between 12 and 15 have become critical, a period when aspiring talents must prove themselves at professional level.

Back in 2002, just days after his 12th birthday, Sergey Karjakin hit the headlines at the Aeroflot Open by scoring his first “grandmaster norm”. He quickly followed this up with another two norms to become, at 12 years and seven months, the world’s youngest grandmaster – and I wrote in this column at the time that I thought this record might never be broken.

China, though, seems the best bet to beat it. At the recent Aeroflot Open in Moscow, the stunning performance of 12-year-old Chinese FM Wei Yi overshadowed the B section winner Turkish GM Emre Can as he came extremely close to scoring his first GM norm.

Wei Yi started well by playing four grandmasters, two international masters and one FIDE master as he turned in a hefty 2570 tournament performance (TPR) in the process. He looked well on his way to a full GM norm before his hopes were dashed by a penultimate round loss; though his final TPR of 2551 performance was good enough for an IM norm and then some.

He turns 13 in April, and although he’s not going to beat Karjakin’s record, Wei Yi certainly looks as if he could possibly have the right stuff for a possible Chinese challenge to emerge in the men’s game.

Wei Yi - J P Gomez

Aeroflot Open B, (2)

French Defence, Tarrasch variation

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 Nf6 4 e5 Nfd7 5 f4 c5 6 c3 Nc6 7 Ndf3 Be7 8 Bd3 cxd4 9 cxd4 Nb6 10 Ne2 Bd7 11 0–0 Rc8 12 Rf2 h5 13 Nc3 g6 14 a3 Na5 15 Ng5 Nbc4 16 b4 Nc6 17 Bxc4 dxc4 18 Nge4 Kf8 19 Bb2 a5 20 b5 Nb4 21 axb4 axb4 22 Nd6! bxc3 23 Bxc3 Bxd6 24 exd6 Rh7 25 d5 Qb6 26 dxe6 fxe6 27 Qe1 Qxb5 28 Ra5 Qb6 29 Rg5 Kf7 30 f5 gxf5 31 Qe5 1–0