In a world where experience is often said to take the lead, young prodigies are proving it wrong. An 8-year-old boy defeated a grandmaster in classical chess he is the youngest ever to achieve this feat! This victory over GM Jacek Stopa from Poland marked a significant highlight of the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open in Switzerland. Tina Popli writes about Ashwath’s remarkable feat and his journey so far. | Photo: David Llada
The Chessable Sunway Sitges Festival took place in the municipality of Sitges, not far from Barcelona, directly on the Mediterranean. The main event, a large open tournament, came to an end on Friday after ten rounds of play with the victory of Abhimanyu Puranik. The 23-year-old Indian grandmaster was the only one of the 329 participants to achieve a score of 8½/10, leaving a four-player chasing pack half a point behind. | Photo: David Llada
On Monday, the 8th Sunway Sitges Open began near Barcelona. 31 players in the strong field have an Elo-rating of more than 2500, but Anton Korobov (pictured), the winner of 2019, is top seed and again among the favourites. He started the tournament with three wins - as did 18 other players. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Due to the ongoing pandemic the Asian Individual Hybrid Chess Championship 2021 was played online. From 21 to 29 May 82 players from 15 countries battled in a hybrid tournament for the title, a place in the FIDE World Cup 2021, and the pitfalls of online play. After nine rounds the 19-year old Grandmaster Shamsiddin Vokhidov from Uzbekistan and IM Tin Jingyao from Singapore shared first with 7.0/9 each, but Vokhidov won the tournament on tiebreak. Top seed Parham Maghsoodloo from Iran finished tenth and suffered from power failures.