Yuriy Kuzubov joins the mini-GM club

Yuriy Kuzubov, 14, Grandmaster

Yuriy Kuzubov, the young Ukraine chess prodigy we introduced to our readers in a recent article, completed his third and final GM norm at the Category 9 tournament that was held in Alushta, Ukraine.

The town of Alušta lies on the Crimean peninsula on the north of the Black Sea, which is part of the modern Ukraine. It is a seaside resort, popular with the Russian and Ukrainian middle-class. There are many sanatoriums in Alushta, each one with its own piece of beach. There is a long-long promenade along the sea shore and it is covered by many cafes, restaurants, souvenir shops.

The tournament was held in the private boarding house “Kaissa”, which is located on the South Crimean shore, just 12 minutes walk from the sea, with accommodation for 45 persons. There are toilet facilities, constant cold and hot water supply, TV sets, refrigerators (air-conditioners in the deluxe rooms), satellite TV, big billiards, table tennis, a sauna and a library.

The boarding house is also a chess center. We constantly held international level chess tournaments with the participation of leading International Masters and Grandmasters. "If you want to play professional chess, fulfill the norm of the International Master or International Grandmaster we invite you to take a part in our tournaments," the owners write.

Final standings

Note that there are errors in the table: the rating of the winner, Paragua, is 2529, not 2430. The errors will be corrected by the organisers in the official home page.

Here are all the games in PGN

Yuriy Kuzubov completed his final norm at the age of and at 14 years, 7 months, 12 days, making him the second youngest grandmaster in the world today. Magnus Carlsen is over ten months younger, while Yuriy's club mate Sergey Karjakin is two weeks older. Karjakin holds the record for becoming the youngest GM in history, having made his final norm at the age of 12 years, 7 months, 0 days.