Anton Smirnov, who played board 5 for Australia in Tromso and who I've already highlighted a couple of times at the Olympiad thread, has evidently now become the world's youngest IM (surpassing Samuel Sevian by 33 days).
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Re: Anton Smirnov
Given the Samuel Sevian reference supra, I should add that Sam picked up his 3rd and final GM norm at the 3rd Annual Washington International and will become a GM as soon as he improves his FIDE rating to 2500 (likely soon). Sam (who doesn't turn 14 until December 26th) will then replace Wei Yi as the world's youngest GM.
A number of Canadians participated at this tournament so I'll provide a link to the final standings.
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Re: Anton Smirnov
The Australian Open gets underway Friday and 13-year-old Anton Smirnov (2432) is featured in this news item.
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Sydney is 16 hours ahead of Toronto so Friday games are now underway and can be viewed live at:
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Kinto Wan (1948), the 59th seed, was paired against the top seed, Ni Hua (2677), and perhaps played the worst Caro-Kann I've ever witnessed. He was dead lost after just 9 moves and resigned 5 moves later ):
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Re: Anton Smirnov
They sure do love their Anton in Sydney. This news item has a perhaps panglossian title but I do hope I'm wrong. While I firmly believe, given his age, that Anton has an excellent chance of becoming Australia's best ever chess player (I suppose that honour currently falls to the retired Ian Rogers), to make it as a truly elite player in Australia is a very tough mountain to climb. Anton will only be the country's 4th GM (and Zong-Yuan Zhao, David Smerdon, or Darryl Johansen are hardly household names - albeit I'm a huge fan of Smerdon since he plays my Marshall Scandinavian) and unless he takes up a chess residence elsewhere that elite mountain is likely insurmountable.
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Re: Anton Smirnov
Boo! Double and triple boo!! I've been primed to see David Smerdon play his beloved Marshall Scandinavian and in his 3 Black games (R5 is currently live) he's faced 1.d4/1.Nr3/1.Nf3 ):Comment
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Re: Anton Smirnov
NI Hua, team captain and board 4 for China's Gold Medal winning team in Tromso, is cakewalking this event with a perfect 6/6. He now has a live rating of 2699.7 which effectively gives China 6 elite 2700 plus GMs. And Bu (2684), Wei (2675), and Hou (2673) are all threatening to add to that number.Last edited by Jack Maguire; Monday, 5 January, 2015, 11:49 AM.Comment
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Re: Anton Smirnov
A source? Maybe performance? Or you made a mistake: 2699.7 as in http://www.2700chess.com/?per-page=100Originally posted by Jack Maguire View PostComment
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Re: Anton Smirnov
Me bad, Egis. Now duly corrected (:Originally posted by Egidijus Zeromskis View PostComment
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Ni Hua remains perfect at 7/7 with 4 rounds to go.Comment
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Ni Hua was almost perfect, giving up a solitary draw in the 8th round, to finish with a stellar plus 10, 10.5/11, and secure his elite 2704.2 status.Comment
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Re: Anton Smirnov
The 'Daily Telegraph' features the runner-up, IM Max Illingworth, who wears the traditional two hats of most non-elite chess players, that of player and that of coach.
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