12 year old has 2500+ performance in St Petersburg
The Florida State Chess Championship just concluded on Labor day this past week in St Petersburg Florida. The surprise of the tournament was 12 year old Lucas van Beuzekom (1948), an 8th grader from Orlando Florida.
He finished tied for 3rd place in the Open section, just a 1/2 point out of first place with 4.5 out of 6. His only loss was to GM Julio Becerra (2640), who tied for first with Ray Robson (2484).
Lucas was tied for first going in to the last round where he had a draw with FM Mark Ritter (2353). Along the way he managed to beat a virtual who’s who of Florida chess talent, including Andrew Cunanan (2197), Jeffery Haskel (2238) and Corey Acor (2302).
The performance rating for this tournament was just above 2500! an incredible result for a 12 year old. The full results can be see here: http://www.floridachess.org/2008FloridaChampionship.htm.
Special thanks to Roderic for sending us the information!
Well done Lucas. I play chess for 20 years and I’ve never beaten anyone above 2000.
To him Carlsen is one of the old guys.