Three-year-old Russian boy plays Anatoly Karpov, solves chess puzzles on live TV

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  • Three-year-old Russian boy plays Anatoly Karpov, solves chess puzzles on live TV

    A November 13, 2016, edition of a talent show on Russian state TV channel featured a three-year-old boy named Mikhail Osipov. He played a 10 min / 2 min game against former World Champion Anatoly Karpov, then solved several chess puzzles for the audience.

    The event was reported by a Latvia-based independent news resource, that's how I learned about it.

    A complete broadcast is available here (the video would start at 48'44'' when a segment devoted to chess begins).

    This is certainly entertaining but, IMHO, cuts dangerously close to child abuse. This three-year-old - like any three-year-old - appears to be emotionally fragile and his reaction to the game result is genuinely painful to watch.

    I've also attempted to do some fact checking. The show host and the Web article alleged that Mikhail had achieved Youth Level II in the Russian chess system. However, a rating search tool on the site of the Russian Chess Federation returns only one result for "Osipov Mi*" - a player with birth year of 2004. As an aside, sorting all ratings by descending birth year shows that about two dozen of rated Russian chess players were indeed born in 2013, three - in 2014, and one of each - in 2015 and 2016. :p Caveat emptor.
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