I really like that idea, it would be incredibly interesting and educational. Any of you strong guys interested?

I think its a good idea. Not that im the strongest but its a good idea

For BJJ's prodigy watch, I present Nodirbek Abdusattorov: https://chess24.com/en/read/news/9-y...o-grandmasters.

He is a 2057-rated 9-year-old -- no Hou Yifan, but still quite impressive.

Right now my prodigy watch spreadsheet isn't even designed to include ratings from earlier than the age of 10. Considering that the article says he was 2057 at the BEGINNING of the event, though, and he's beaten two GMs and an IM, and has a 2514 performance rating through 7 rounds, I wonder what his rating will be up to by the time his 10th birthday rolls around and he makes my chart? Looks like he finished the event at 5/9 with a performance rating of 2426, dropping off a little after that start, but still of course a tremendous result. Any idea if he's almost 10, or if he just turned 9? That could greatly impact where he might enter onto the list below.

For the record, here's a list of HIGHEST published rating within the first four months* after turning 10 for the players on my chart (and the age at which they received it, since months matter here) for comparisons:

2224 - Wei Yi (10 and 3 months)
2206 - Sergey Karjakin (10 and 3 months)
2175 - Daniil Dubov (10 and 2 months)
2168 - Hou Yifan (10 and 1 month, this dropped to 2153 at the 4 month mark)
2168 - Samuel Sevian (10 and 4 months)
2139 - Andrey Esipenko (10 and 1 month, dropped to 2116 at 4 months)
2121 - Awonder Liang (10 and 4 months)
2117 - Parimarjan Negi (10 and 2 months)
2102 - Fabiano Caruana (10 and 2 months)
2064 - Magnus Carlsen (10 and 4 months)
2009 - Anton Smirnov (10 and 3 months)
2005 - Richard Rapport (10 and 3 months)
1940 - Jeffrey Xiong (10 and 4 months)
1889 - Aravindh Chithambaram (10 and 4 months)

*Time frame cherry picked to allow Magnus Carlsen's inclusion, as his first published rating came when he was 10 years and 4 months old.

In June, besides the Norway tournament, we're also going to have the rapid and blitz world championships, and as I read on chess.com, we're gonna have a bunch of the top players.

Sounds like an exciting event. Time controls will be 3|2 for blitz and 15|10 for rapid.

We'll see if Magnus can add the rapid title to his world championship collection (having already won the blitz in 2009), though he didn't do too well in the rapid part in Zurich.

Minor child prodigy note for BJJ:

IM Jeffrey Xiong is playing in the Chicago Open, and as I'm typing this through 4 rounds (round 5 in progess) he's sitting at 3.5/4. That includes wins over some random 2000, GM Miguel Leon Hoyos (FIDE 2525), and Gregory Kaidanov (FIDE 2575), as well as a draw against GM Gabriel Sargissian (FIDE 2684 and #65 player in the world). Holy crap. Definitely on pace for a GM norm.

In round 5 he drew GM Eugene Perelshteyn (had a winning position, disappointing result) and now has 4/5, with 4 games against GMs.

Damn what a chess gangsta

Sick results so far. He's already on my watch list, but only at a level where I check in on his monthly rating updates so I didn't know he was tearing up Chicago like that. A GM norm would certainly be a fantastic result for the young man. I'm rooting for him!

Looks like he drew another GM rated over 2600 today, putting him at 4.5/6 now. And he'll play yet another 26xx tomorrow.

Edit: if he plays the lowest possible rated opponents in the unpaired round (the other underperforming 24xx guys) he might need to finish at 6/9 for a GM norm. Otherwise 5.5/9 might get him there.

Thanks for the stats BJJ, you know this stuff better than anyone I know.

I'd like to think all of that strong resistance <cough, cough> in games with Jeffery really helped train and mold him for performances like these (isucklolol).

His birthdate is September 18, 2004, so he's 9 years and 8 months old. At the same age, Wei Yi was ~2150, Samuel Sevian ~2105, and Fabiano Caruana ~2032.

His performance in the Agzamov Memorial is worth roughly 50 rating points, according to this calculator.

So Jeffrey Xiong drew two 2600 GMs today, Sadorra and Macieja. So far, his tournament looks like this....


5/7 (+3 =4 -0)
2098 - win
2684 - draw
2525 - win
2575 - win
2513 - draw
2611- draw
2605 - draw

...for a performance rating through 7 rounds of 2687 (average opponent ELO of 2516). Geez.

BJJ, in tomorrow's two games, does he likely need 0.5 or 1?

Depends on the pairings. Half a point tomorrow will definitely be sufficient if the average rating of his two opponents is over 2530. A full point will definitely be needed if those two opponents are rated under 2520 (average). I used a table, not the precise formula, and rounding leaves me uncertain whether the half point would be sufficient if their average rating is in that 10 point range, it would be close. I *think* the breakeven point *might* be 2525, but I'm not 100% sure.

Looking at the crosstable after round 6, it looks like he should be golden with half a point in two games, as long as he dodges Troff and Bregadze, but if he has to play one of them then he'll probably need a full point from the day.

Very much appreciate it sir, thank you. Really hoping he's able to dodge Troff and Bregadze.

Well, either dodge them, or just beat one of them...

Uh oh, looks like he's in trouble against Margvelashvili.

Looks like he lost that one, and is paired with a 2233 in the last round. It's definitely must-win now, but the good news is that a final round win will still earn the norm.

A lot better than if he were paired with a 2480 or so and still needed the win, I guess. At least he's a decent ratings favorite to get there.

Yep, very true.

This last game isn't being relayed live. Dang.

My analysis is that IMs Xiong and Kannappan both earned GM norms. Interesting, FM Michael Lee scored half a point better than Xiong, but did NOT earn a GM norm because his opponents were that much weaker, though he should definitely have picked up an IM norm to go along with his third place finish.

Thanks for the heads up, I didn't see the final standings were posted. Very cool for all of those guys. Impressive score from the FM, too.

By the way, in addition to the GM norm, the rating gain from this tournament (24-25 points, I believe) should allow Xiong to say (after the next FIDE rating list is published) that he is rated higher than any of Nakamura, Caruana, Giri, or Rapport were at the same age. Although I'm afraid he will still be well off from Magnus Carlsen's 2567 rating on the July 2004 list, which is when HE was the same age Xiong is now...

Damnmnmn

I asked this in the 2p2 chess thread but I'll go here too...

I'm going to upgrade to premium account on chess.com and I wanna know if diamond is worth the extra per year over the platinum account. The only difference seems to be access to the video archives so my question is essentially if those are great or if free videos on youtube are just as good. I'm very much a visual learner.

I actually think the unlimited amount of Chess Mentor lessons/day is the best reason for Diamond over Platinum.