The Great One of chess
12-year-old Ottawa boy victorious as Latvian superstar takes on 35 players
By Matthew Pearson, The Ottawa Citizen
February 12, 2010
OTTAWA — In a shocking upset, a 12-year-old beat Russian-born chess superstar Alexei Shirov, who was in town to trade moves with 36 of the region’s top players — simultaneously.
Pranav Sharma — the youngest player in the room — beat Shirov in just 16 moves.
“I was playing my openings and I guess he blundered and I found the moves and won,” said Pranav, a Grade 7 student at Glashan Public School.
Some compared the once-in-a-lifetime mega-match against Shirov — known in the chess world as a Super Grandmaster — to playing shinny hockey with Wayne Gretzky or hitting the greens with Tiger Woods.
Dressed in a dark suit and sporting a blond faux-hawk, Shirov, 37, said little as he slid from table to table and faced players ranging in age from pre-teens to retirees.
He shook each opponent’s hand, autographed a book here and there — he’s written several and also has a line of chess DVDs — and made his move.
The games started just after 7 p.m. and were expected to last as late as midnight. For Shirov, who arrived from Riga, Latvia, at around 2:30 a.m. Thursday, that would feel more like 6 a.m.
Anyone who beat him was to get an autographed copy of his latest book — and major bragging rights.
Gordon Ritchie, a member of the R.A. Chess Club and Shirov’s host while he’s in the city, said his guest is known for his aggressive style in which matches can go from zero to 60 in the matter of a few plays.
Here is the full article.
Congratulations Pranav! Nicely done!
Impressive.
I’d love to see how that went down. 🙂
Here is the link to the Simul Photo’s and the game of Pranav Sharma, a very impressive win for a young growing chess prodigy…
http://www.chesstalk.info/forum/showthread.php?t=2737
Just looked at the score. 16 Bxc6+ is a very nice finish.
On the kid’s score sheet, does that read 8. Qc5? I’ve been trying to play through the game and keep getting stuck there.
its Queen C1 as it takes the bishop on H6 eventually
Pretty soon children will be born with GM titles as the talent gets younger and younger.
big deal.
i beat shirov in just 15 moves and i was only 11 years old at the time
okay, i was actually 25 years old and it was boo-boo shirov, this guy that works at a coffee shop where i play chess.
and it wasn’t 15 moves, it was a grinding 57 move battle.
okay, it was a draw.
okay, so i like to tell tales
it says Qc1
Um, comparing Shirov to Wayne Gretzky or Tiger Woods is crazy. Maybe Kasparov or Karpov is comparable. Shirov is more like a regular all-star NHL player or a fairly successful PGA pro, maybe like Vijay Singh.
IT does say 9. Qc5, which is illegal. The only thing consistent with the rest of the game is 9. Qh5, which means Black overlooked a good move. That makes the game:
[Event “?”]
[Site “?”]
[Date “????.??.??”]
[Round “?”]
[White “?”]
[Black “?”]
[Result “*”]
[PlyCount “31”]
1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. d3 d6 6. Be3 Rb8 7. f4
b5 8. Qh5 b4 9. Nce2 e5 10. Nf3 Nge7 11. f5 gxf5 12. Bh6
Bxh6 13. Qxh6 fxe4 14. Ng5 exd3 15. Qg7 Rf8 16. Bxc6+ * 1-0
Whoops, it must be 9.Qc1. But it looks like Black can equalize with 16…Nxc6.
Looks like black’s move 15 should be Rg8 (??) – major blunder.
The picture of the scoresheet shows
15. … Rg8
This is why Shirov resigned after 16.Bxc6
So the updated score sheet should read:
1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. d3 d6 6. Be3 Rb8 7. f4
b5 8. Qc1 b4 9. Nce2 e5 10. Nf3 Nge7 11. f5 gxf5 12. Bh6 Bxh6 13. Qxh6 fxe4 14. Ng5 exd3 15. Qg7 Rg8?? 16. Bxc6+ 1-0
So the kid wasn’t particularly brilliant … Shirov blundered and
Pranav Sharma capitalized. It happens.
Yes, it must be 15… Rg8 like the photo shows. I mistakenly thought Rf8.
“
So the kid wasn’t particularly brilliant … Shirov blundered and
Pranav Sharma capitalized. It happens.”
Uh, that is the definition of brilliant. The kid saw Shirov’s mistake an won.
Brilliant!
big deal, I played against pranav sharma in a tournament and by the 16th move I was already up a rook, he gave up on the 18-20 move or something like that, http://www.chesstalk.com/elo/pub/scr/tournois.php?no=4935, I am Tony Ivanenko on that sheet