Ethan Pang, the nine-year-old London schoolboy who, in June, set a new world mark as the youngest ever to achieve a 2200 master rating, is in the record books again.
Competing in the Vezerkepzo IM tournament in Budapest, Pang defeated three grandmasters in succession between rounds two and five. True, the beaten trio were past their best and rated below 2400 compared with the normal GM level of 2500, but they all had decades of high-level experience.
First up in round two was Slovakia’s Milan Pacher, 33, who went into a poor endgame and lost a pawn at move 23, which Pang converted smoothly 18 moves later.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nc6 5 Nc3 Qc7 6 g3 Nf6 7 Bg2 Nxd4 8 Qxd4 Bc5 9 Bf4 Bxd4 10 Bxc7 Ke7 11 Nb5 Bb6 12 Bxb6 axb6 13 a3 d6 14 0-0-0 Rd8 15 Rd2 Ne8 16 Rhd1 f6 17 f4 Ra5 18 c4 Ra4 19 b3 Ra8 20 e5 fxe5 21 fxe5 d5 22 cxd5 exd5 23 Rxd5 Be6 24 Rxd8 Rxd8 25 Rxd8 Kxd8 26 Kc2 Nc7 27 Nxc7 Kxc7 28 Kc3 g5 29 b4 h6 30 Kd4 Bf5 31 Be4 Be6 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 in round four was Hungary’s Attila Czebe, 48, whose passive 32…Kh8? (f5!) was met by Pang’s powerful king’s side attack highlighted by 35 c5! and 36 d5! This was the most impressive game of the three.
1 e4 g6 2 d4 Bg7 3 Nc3 d6 4 Be3 c6 5 Qd2 b5 6 g3 Bb7 7 Bg2 Nd7 8 f4 Qc7 9 Nd1 Ngf6 10 Nf2 0-0 11 Ne2 e5 12 c3 Rfe8 13 0-0 Nb6 14 b3 Nfd7 15 Rac1 c5 16 g4 exf4 17 Bxf4 Rad8 18 Ng3 Nf8 19 Rfd1 c4 20 Bh6 Qe7 21 Bg5 f6 22 Be3 d5 23 Re1 Qf7 24 Rf1 dxe4 25 Nfxe4 Bxe4 26 Nxe4 cxb3 27 axb3 Nd5 28 Bh6 Bxh6 29 Qxh6 Qg7 30 Qh3 Ne6 31 Qg3 Rf8 32 Rce1 Kh8 33 c4 bxc4 34 bxc4 Nb6 35 c5! Nc8 36 d5! Rxd5 37 Nxf6 Rxf6 38 Bxd5 Rxf1+ 39 Kxf1 Qf8+ 40 Qf3 1-0
In round five Hungary’s Zoltan Varga, 54, miscalculated some middle game tactics and resigned on move 23 when two pawns down with no compensation.
Three victories against GMs in a single classical tournament by an under-10 is a unique achievement. The nearest precedent occurred at Tashkent 2014 when the current world No 6, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, then also aged nine, defeated two strong GMs, rated 2600 and 2495.
After five rounds (of 11), Pang had four points and seemed poised to break the Argentinian prodigy Faustino Oro’s age record of reaching a 2300 rating and so qualifying for a Fide Master (FM) title. Pang’s Fide rating was up to 2292, so that a win against India’s Alana Kolagatla in their postponed third-round game would be enough.
It was a golden opportunity, but sadly the schoolboy missed it. It came down to a single error at move 14, where a central pawn push would have gained material, clocked up +2 on Stockfish, and most probably led to victory and capturing Oro’s world record.
Pang’s iconic tournament ended on a downbeat note with two losses, one of them to the top seed and first prize winner, 2412-rated GM Valeriy Neverov of Ukraine. Pang’s total was 4.5/8, but he then had to miss the final two rounds and withdraw on Tuesday so that he could fly back with his father to London in time for the new term at Westminster Under School on Wednesday.
All the games of Vezerkepzo Budapest can be viewed in a play-through format at chess-results.com.
Pang is now aged nine years five months, and Oro’s 2300/FM age record was set at just a month older, so that there will not be another opportunity to break the Argentinian boy’s landmark. However,Javokhir Sindarov, the second fastest to 2300 after Oro, only achieved the rating at 10 years two months. Pang still has eight months to become the second youngest 2300 ever.
Pang said he aims to build his skills in the next year in order to compete in more tournaments against highly rated opposition. Long term, his target is the world top. His chess heroes are Mikhail Tal, for his aggressive and creative style, and Hikaru Nakamura. “It is inspiring to watch him play. The way he manipulates his knights is like a magician.”
Pang’s favourite openings are the “tricky” Scotch Game and the counterattacking Sicilian. He recommends ambitious juniors to join an adult chess club and play in a variety of tournaments. Away from chess, his main interest is music, and he enjoys playing the violin.
Fide’s September 2024 age ratings show England’s Pang and Bodhana Sivanandan as the world’s best two nine-year-olds, with England’s Kushal Jakhria and Scotland’s Louis Cheng fourth and fifth. Sivanandan will be in action next week, also in Budapest, when she becomes the youngest person to represent England in any game or sport at the Fide women’s Olympiad.
Roman Shogdzhiev, the only non-British name listed, was one of the stars of the 2023 World Rapid and Blitz championships, where he defeated five grandmasters and earned rapid/blitz ratings well above 2300. The Russian boy has been unable so far to match these results in classical chess, where he remains below 2200 despite playing 63 games in the past five months. He was born in April 2015, so still has two months to surpass Oro’s record.
This weekend, Paris will host the semi-finals and final of the $175,000 chess.com speed championship, whose earlier rounds were played online but whose last stages will be hybrid, with the players seated opposite each other but playing on separate computers. Each match will involve three hours of play at time rates ranging from five-minute blitz to one-minute bullet.
One semi-final is Magnus Carlsen v Hans Niemann, their first over-the-board encounter since their infamous 2022 Sinquefield Cup game which sparked cheating allegations and a $100m lawsuit; the other is Alireza Firouzja v Nakamura, the world No 2 and celebrated streamer.
That match is too close to call, and the likely Carlsen v Firouzja or Nakamura final also has scope for an upset result, as both have beaten Carlsen in a previous online final. The time limit is very fast, yet this will be a high-standard event, albeit with the occasional blunder, which should fascinate the anticipated huge web audience.
3936: 1…Rg3+ 2 Kc2 Rg2+ 3 Kc3 Rxb2 4 Kxb2 Rxd5! 5 cxd5 Bd4+ and 6…Bxe5 wins. If White tries 4 Rf7+ Ke8 5 Rc7 Rxd5! 6 cxd5 Bd6! attacking c7 and Black stays a bishop ahead.
