Freddy has beaten a grandmaster

by Frederic Friedel
7/23/2021 – Frederick Gordon learnt chess at the age of six. After a week he started beating his parents, both PhDs in mathematics. Now, at the age of ten, Freddy has defeated a full-blown grandmaster, Bogdon Lalic, in a rapid chess game. But, the BBC reports, "the talented young Scottish player did not share his excitement with his school friends because he thought it would be boasting."
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The BBC writes:

Frederick Waldhausen Gordon is just 10 years old and has already defeated a chess grandmaster. But the talented young Scottish player did not share his excitement with his school friends because he thought it would be boasting.

Freddy started playing chess at the age of six – and within a week he was beating his parents, who both have PhDs in maths.

He joined the Edinburgh Chess Academy and started practising two hours a day after school and four hours a day at weekends. He watched the best players on YouTube and picked up tips from his chess teacher and a family friend.

Freddy became the under-10 British champion, one of Scotland's top graded juniors of all time, and is currently the country's top under-18 player.

And in March this year, he defeated grandmaster Bogdan Lalic on his way to winning an English Chess Federation Prix Rapid Event.

He faced adult opponents in his six matches, but said the 30-minute contest with the 57-year-old Croatian was the most exciting game.

Read the full BBC article here

We asked Freddy for some of his games, especially the one against Lalic, and he sent us the following:

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,186,70654%2421---
1.d4960,56055%2434---
1.Nf3286,91356%2440---
1.c4185,11556%2442---
1.g319,90256%2427---
1.b314,60954%2428---
1.f45,95948%2376---
1.Nc33,91950%2383---
1.b41,79148%2379---
1.a31,25254%2406---
1.e31,08149%2409---
1.d396950%2378---
1.g467046%2361---
1.h446654%2382---
1.c343951%2425---
1.h328956%2420---
1.a411860%2461---
1.f310047%2427---
1.Nh39366%2506---
1.Na34762%2476---
1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 Bg4 4.h3 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 e6 6.Be2 Nf6 7.0-0 Be7 8.Qg3 dxe4 9.Qxg7 Rg8 10.Qh6 Qc7 I was thinking about either Qe3 or Qh4 or d3. I thought the Queen was potentially in danger, so wondered about bringing her back (allowing f3 and Qe1 if h4; Qe3 allows Bc4 and protects queen, but the bishop on c1 becomes bad). 11.d3 I decided on d3 to activate the bishop, protecting the queen and opening up the position, since the opponent’s king was in the centre. Rg6 12.Qe3 Nbd7 13.Nxe4? A mistake! I took with the knight to stop Bc5 (if Nxe4 then the pawn takes and queen gains activity). BUT I didn’t notice 13...Nd5, after which my queen is cramped and I lose the initiative. If I’d taken with the pawn (13.dxe4) I would have stopped that. Nxe4 Luckily my opponent missed this too! 14.Qxe4 0-0-0 15.Bf4 Bd6 16.Bxd6 Qxd6 17.Bf3 Rdg8 18.d4 Nf6 19.Qh4 Nd5 20.g3 I’m thinking that I’d like to get to the endgame – I have a better pawn structure and am one pawn up. So I wanted to secure my king – preventing Nf4. Better was probably c4 to keep up pressure on the opponent? Nf4 21.Kh2 Nd5 22.c3 Ne7 23.Be4 f5 24.Bf3 R6g7 25.Rae1 Kd7 26.Bh5 Nd5 27.Re5 f4 28.Bg4 Rg6 29.Qxh7+ R8g7 30.Rxe6 I saw a tactic that would force the queens off and gain an extra pawn for me. So I went for it! Once that was done the rest is just playing through to force the win. fxg3+ 31.fxg3 Rxh7 32.Rxg6+ Kc7 33.Rxd6 Kxd6 34.Re1 Rf7 35.Kg2 Rf6 36.Bf3 Nb6 37.b3 a5 38.c4 Nc8 39.Bg4 Na7 40.Re8 Rf7 41.Rd8+ Kc7 42.Ra8 c5 43.Rxa7 Kb6 44.Ra8 cxd4 45.Rd8 Kc5 46.Rd5+ Kb4 47.Rxd4 Ka3 48.Rd7 Rf6 49.Rxb7 Kxa2 50.Bf3 Rd6 51.c5 Rd2+ 52.Kf1 Rc2 53.c6 Rc3 54.Ke2 Rc2+ 55.Kd3 Kb2 56.c7 Rc3+ 57.Kd4 Kc2 58.Bg4 Rd3+ 59.Ke4 Kd2 60.c8Q a4 61.Rd7 Rxd7 62.Qxd7+ Kc1 63.bxa4 Kc2 64.Qd3+ Kb2 65.Be6 Kc1 66.Qe2 Kb1 67.Bb3 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Gordon,F-Adamc-1–02021B11
Gordon,F-Khoury,T-1–02021B51British Championship
Gordon,F-Lalic,B-1–02021C11Rapid Online
Gordon,F-Kisic,J-1–02021B11European Youth Championship

Freddy with his sister Josephine | Photo Maya Waldhausen

Green initiative!

I contacted Freddy's parents in Scotland. His father Iain is Professor of Mathematics at the Hodge Institute & School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, and his mother Maja, who is German, also has a PhD in mathematics. Chatting with the boy for an hour on Skype was great fun. I gave him my Talent Test, which he solved in a short time (in his head, looking straight into the webcam). During our conversation I invited a friend to join:

Leon Mendonca, 15, has been stranded in Budapest for well over a year now. This young lad used the forced stay in Hungary to play in events and earn his full GM title. He spends his free time with very interesting cultural activities.

Leon confirm my impression of Freddy's extraordinary talent. In fact, the two made friends and Leon started training his younger colleague. Their sessions are conducted on Skype, once a week, whenever Leon has time (he is constantly playing in OTB tournaments in Budapest).

We wish Freddy Gordon every success in his very promising chess career.

Interview with Freddy Waldhausen Gordon

Recently Sagar Shah of ChessBase India conducted an interview with Freddy, who was staying with his grandparents in Scotland. Sagar analysed some games with him, and also ran some tests. A great impression of what a child prodigy in chess is like.

You gotta love the way this ten-year-old talks chess – and be enchanted by his Scottish accent.

Editor-in-Chief emeritus of the ChessBase News page. Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and Oxford, graduating with a thesis on speech act theory and moral language. He started a university career but switched to science journalism, producing documentaries for German TV. In 1986 he co-founded ChessBase.

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