Faustino Oro might break another record this weekend

by Johannes Fischer
6/28/2024 – Faustino Oro was born in Argentina on 14 October 2013 and has a good chance of becoming the youngest International Master in the history of chess. He has already achieved two norms and will easily surpass the 2400 rating mark in the next FIDE world ranking, which will be published on 1 July. The Argentine therefore only needs a third norm to win the title. And that seems to be within his grasp at an IM tournament in Barcelona. | Photo: Infobae

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Almost there

One grandmaster, two international masters and seven FIDE masters are competing in the Cerrado IM tournament in Barcelona, with an Elo average of 2320. To get an IM norm, 6½ points from 9 games are required, and Faustino Oro has a good chance of achieving this score. With four wins and two draws, he has 5 points from 6 games with three rounds to go and only needs 1½ points from the last three rounds to break the record of US Grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra, who became the youngest ever International Master at the age of 10 years, 9 months and 20 days.

And if the young Argentine continues to play as confidently as he did in the first six rounds, he should win the title.

In the very first round, Oro had to play against the top seed and the only grandmaster in the field — the 10-year-old came away with a surprisingly confident and composed victory against Hipolito Asis Gargatagli.

Faustino Oro

Oro also impressed in rounds 2 and 3 with his composed positional play.

In rounds 4 and 5, the young talent slowed down a bit and allowed himself two unspectacular and safe draws. But in round 6 he managed another convincing win: he had no problems finding a convincing concept against the rarely played Benoni Defence, and soon after the end of the opening phase, he won a pawn with a neat tactical trick and then exploited this advantage with incredible precision.

Two FMs and an IM await Faustino Oro in the last three rounds: FM Xavier Mompel (Elo 2279), FM Cesar Alcalá (Elo 2274) and IM Fernando Valenzuela (Elo 2358). Whether Faustino Oro holds his nerve in the last three rounds and secures the title and record remains to be seen.

Two out of the three final rounds will take place on Saturday, while the ninth and deciding round will take place on Sunday at 10.00 local time.

Standings after round 6

Rk. Name FED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pts.  TB1   TB2   TB3 
1
FM Oro, Faustino ARG * ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 5 0 4 2,5
2
IM Hernandez, Cristian Andres COL ½ * ½ ½ 1 1 1 4,5 0 3 1,5
3
IM Valenzuela Gomez, Fernando CHI ½ * ½ ½ 0 1 1 3,5 0 2 1,5
4
GM Asis Gargatagli, Hipolito ESP 0 ½ ½ * 1 ½ 1 3,5 0 2 1
5
FM Martin Barcelo, Carles ESP 0 ½ * ½ 1 1 ½ 3,5 0 2 0,5
6
FM Malka, Samuel FRA 0 0 * 1 1 0 ½ 2,5 0 2 0
7
FM Alcala Gonzalez, Cesar ESP 0 1 0 ½ 0 * ½ 2 0 1 1,5
8
FM Masague Artero, Guerau ESP ½ 0 0 0 * 1 ½ 2 0 1 0,5
FM Mompel Ferruz, Xavier GEQ 0 ½ 0 1 ½ 0 * 2 0 1 0,5
10
FM Villa Tornero, Alex ESP 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ * 1,5 0 0 0,5

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Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".