7-year old big dreams

7-Year-old Filipino Chess Player Has Big Dreams
July 3, 2013, 4:52 PM
By Cris Larano

Meet Alekhine Nouri. At 7 years old, he is the Philippines’ youngest chess master, having won a key World Chess Federation-sanctioned competition for his age group last month in Thailand.

“I’d like to play Sergey Karjakin,” Alekhine told The Wall Street Journal, referring to the world’s youngest child to win a “Grandmaster” title at 12 years and seven months old. “I want to be a super [Grandmaster],” added Alekhine, who was named in honor of Alexander Alekhine, one of the world’s greatest chess players who became the fourth World Chess Champion in 1927.

Alekhine’s father, Hamed, and mother, Roda, decided in December to move their family–Alekhine has an older brother–from Escalante City in the central Philippine province of Negros Occidental to metropolitan Manila to give the 1st grader a better chance at developing his potential. Within six months, Alekhine became a FIDE Master—the highest norm Alekhine can earn in age group competitions–and was granted an athletic scholarship by the Far Eastern University in Manila as a member of the school’s elementary chess team.

FIDE – Federation Internationale des Echecs – is the World Chess Federation and the governing body of international chess competitions.

“We need international exposure so that [Alekhine] could earn International Master norm by the time he is 9 or 10…. He needs more open tournaments,” said Mr. Nouri, who holds a FIDE master title and coaches his son. The Philippines has very few open tournaments where Alekhine can compete with older and master wood pushers to earn the International Master performance norm.

Alekhine started playing chess when he was five-and-a-half years old in Escalante, where his father worked as sports coordinator for the city mayor. Alekhine loved the game immediately.

“They’re like cartoons,” he said of the chess pieces, forcing a smile as he battles a toothache.

Mr. Nouri said he first entered his son in competitive chess in April 2010, in a 12-and-under tournament during the Panaad Festival. Alekhine, the youngest in the field, failed to win even a single game after seven rounds. Weeks later, in a tournament for boys 14 years old and under, Alekhine drew one game and lost six.

Mr. Nouri realized his son had huge potential. They started to practice more regularly, with the father withdrawing Alekhine from distractions, such as television and computer games. By October of 2010, Alekhine beat all his opponents in a 12-and-under competition, emerging as champion with a perfect score. More wins followed until he competed nationally and earned a spot in the national youth team that competed in Singapore in 2011 and then in Vietnam.

By December 2012, father and son were in India as part of the Philippine contingent for an Asian chess competition. Alekhine won silver in blitz chess (where each player is given 15 minutes or less), bronze in rapid chess (where a player is given between 15 and 60 minutes), and placed fourth in standard chess (where time per player ranges from 60 to 180 minutes).

“Six,” Alekhine said as he counted the number of countries he has traveled to for chess competitions. He and his father are now applying for visas to compete in China on July 13. After that, father and son team will be headed for Indonesia and Malaysia to acclimatize Alekhine in international open competitions, where he will be going up against chess masters older than his father.

Mr. Nouri said they are now looking for sponsors to help Alekhine realize his dream of becoming the world’s youngest chess grandmaster, beating the boy’s dream opponent Sergey Karjakin even before they actually face each other across the chess board.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com