Eleven year-old boy wins chess tournament
Win advances Nepean native into new division
April 06, 2009
BY Glen Tremblay / This Week intern
The Ottawa Recreation Association Centre hosted the Eastern Ontario Chess Association’s 2009 Spring Open from March 20 to 22 where an 11-year-old Nepean boy took first place in his division.
Divided into two sections, Canadian International Master Artiom Samsonkin from Toronto won first place in the open section (a rating system used by major chess organizations to determine one player’s skill relative to another) with 11 year-old Agastya Kalra from Nepean capturing first in the U1800 section.
The highest rated player in his category with a rating of 1776 going into the tournament, Agastya advanced to a rating of 1842 after winning the tournament undefeated in five consecutive games.
“It wasn’t easy,” said Agastya about winning the tournament. “I actually got a little lucky. I set some traps and they fell for it and I got lucky there.”
Agastya, who has been playing chess recreationally since the age of three and a half, and competitively since he was six, has played in tournaments all over Ontario as well as having competed in tournaments in Boston, Philadelphia (the World Open 2008) and Quebec.
Here is the full article.
Is he the next Canadian hope?
If I learned chess at the age of 3 and a half, I would be a grandmaster already