9-Year-Old Ethan Pang Defeats Three Grandmasters In One Event

Nine-year-old CM Ethan Pang, the youngest-ever 2200 player, defeated three grandmasters in a recent classical tournament in Hungary and came close to breaking the 2300 rating barrier for the first time.

Pang, who made headlines in July when he broke IM-elect Faustino Oro‘s record to become the youngest player in chess history to achieve a rating of 2200, scored a remarkable performance at the Vezerkepzo IM tournament that ended last week in Budapest, Hungary.

The 9-year-old prodigy from London finished on an impressive 4.5/8 score and a 2300 rating performance after he had defeated three grandmasters and held one IM to a draw. The GMs were rated as low as 2365, 2302, and 2321, but as pointed out by the Guardian’s Leonard Barden, they had “decades of experience in high-level tournaments” and should normally have no problem defeating a child who learned the rules a few years ago.

“Three victories against GMs in a single classical tournament by an under-10 is a unique achievement,” the legendary chess columnist wrote.

In the last year, Chess.com has covered numerous cases of under-10s defeating grandmasters in classical games. Ashwath Kaushik from Singapore remains the youngest, after he beat 2351-rated GM Jacek Stopa in February at the age of eight years, six months, and 11 days, breaking Serbian Leonid Ivanovic‘s record set a month earlier.

“Ethan was very happy to have made such a feat, but we had no idea it was breaking some kind of unofficial record,” Ethan’s father Raymond Pang told Chess.com.

Ethan was very happy to have made such a feat, but we had no idea it was breaking some kind of unofficial record.

—Raymond Pang

Pang now has three entries in the list of the youngest players to beat a grandmaster.

Pang’s first victim was 34-year-old GM Milan Pacher from Slovakia, who went into a poor endgame, in which the nine-year-old converted effectively.

Two rounds later, Pang followed up by outplaying 48-year-old GM Attilla Czebe from Hungary, then finding a nice tactic that eventually concluded the game.

As if that wasn’t enough, the prodigy then beat GM Zoltan Varga in just 23 moves when the Hungarian 54-year-old apparently made a miscalculation after the opening, and resigned two pawns down.

After a draw in round six, Pang went on to lose two games in a row, missing an opportunity to break the 2300-barrier virtually. He then had to fly back home to the U.K. with his father in time for the new term at school in London.

Still, his performance was above 2300 and a rating gain of 20 points is an impressive feat by a nine-year-old. Pang heads the list of the highest-rated players born in 2015 or later, ahead of his compatriot WFM Bodhana Sivanandan. CM Roman Shogdzhiev, who beat five grandmasters at last year’s World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship, is third.

Pang’s father previously told Chess.com that Ethan learned the game at the school’s chess club at the age of five. Asked how his son became such a strong player at an early age, he said:

It seems that it ultimately came down to practice. When he is presented with the opportunity to play against strong players, he tends to take it more seriously and apply himself fully. Consistent practice and the chance to compete against different types of opponents were key factors to his chess development.

Ethan is now going back to school, but it’s unlikely we’ve heard the last of him.