21-year-old Singapore’s best-rated chess player Tin Jingyao will become the nation’s fifth and youngest grandmaster as he won the third GM norm at the Hanoi GM Chess Tournament.
After great play in the 31st Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) Tim Jingyao won his second GM norm on the way to the grandmaster crown. With score of 6.5 points, Jingyao tied for the second place of the 31st SEA Games winning a bronze medal due to the lower tiebreaks than the second-ranked IM Ervan Mohamad. Only a few weeks later, with top-notch performance at the Hanoi GM Chess Tournament, Jingyao claimed the third grandmaster norm and secured his Grandmaster title. With impressive 8/9 points, the Singaporean won the tournament and had a 2774 rating performance.
In the interview for The Straits Times Jingyao said: “I’m very happy and relieved because I have been working towards this for the last couple of years, and events have been hard to come by because of the Covid-19 pandemic. I intend to continue playing chess seriously and aim to increase my Fide rating to 2,600. Learning and improving is a very fun process – when I’m able to show results in tournaments, it is a good feeling.“.
Twelve years ago, Tin Jingyao and 21 other enthusiasts simultaneously played against the 13th World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov. Kasparov won all the games but emphasized his toughest opponent was Tin Jingyao – back then a 9-year-old kid who yesterday became a grandmaster.
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