Yang-Fan Zhou shows UK chess has prospects for a golden future
Leonard Barden
The Guardian
Friday 21 December 2012 07.03 EST
The London Classic Open was low-key beside Magnus Carlsen’s record-breaking victory in the main event, but its outcome could be significant for England’s chess future. The UK’s youngest master, Yang-Fan Zhou, 18, registered one of his best results to date, scoring 7/9 and finishing tied third behind grandmasters from Armenia and the Netherlands.
The ambitious Croydon teen is using his gap year to try to achieve the GM title. It is a difficult target, requiring three tournament results at GM level as well as raising his Fide world rating, currently 2419, to 2500. He already has several GM scalps in individual games, while several previous schoolboy IMs reached the higher title by their early twenties.
Whether Zhou succeeds could also help to determine whether England can remain a prominent chess nation in the next decade. In the golden 1970s and 1980s when England was No2 to the Soviet Union, almost every year saw new IMs and GMs appear. Strength bred strength, creating a pyramid which had the world title finalists Nigel Short and Michael Adams at its apex.
During the last decade, however, UK junior standards have dipped. Since Gawain Jones, now 25, and David Howell, 22, became 2600-rated GMs only Zhou has reached the lower IM level. Even though chess is booming in primary schools due to the success of the UK Challenge and the work of educational charities, there is a high drop-out at secondary level. Besides Zhou, only the Dulwich 18-year-old Samuel Franklin, who has two IM norms, and Berkshire’s Matthew Wadsworth, who performed impressively at last month’s world Under-12 championship, look good future GM candidates.
The experience of the 1970s, when Tony Miles became the first UK GM and inspired others to set their sights high, suggests that if Zhou makes a breakthrough in 2013 it could spark other talents. His next event is the Hastings Masters starting on 28 December, and I shall watch his results there with interest to see if he can make a serious bid for his first GM norm.
Fantastic!