King of the chess board
Wednesday 11 August 2010

Published on Wed Aug 11 11:00:22 BST 2010

AN EIGHT-year-old boy hopes to become a world chess champion after finishing runner-up in a British youth competition.

Samir Samadov began to play chess when he was five years old, in his home country in Eastern Europe, where the game is very popular with young children.

He moved to the UK in 2008 and never lost his enthusiasm and has been playing chess at a Atherton Chess Club, which meets in the Atherton Arms pub.

With the support of the local community and adult chess players, he entered the British Under Eight Chess Championship in Canterbury and finished runner-up.

He also finished fifth in the Under Nine Championship.

His mum, Samira, said: “We are very proud of him and so happy for him.

“He says he wants to be a world champion. We will do everything we can for him to be a world champion.

“From five years old, Samir said he was interested in chess, so we took him to a club and his teacher said he had abilities and he could be a champion in the future.

“When we moved to this country, he was crying because he wanted to play chess but we couldn’t find anywhere to play.

“Eventually we met a man who plays chess at the Atherton Arms, who said he had a talent and he would help him and he has gone on from there.”

Here is the full article.

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Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
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