Oxford six-year-old plays chess in adult tournament
4 February 2012 Last updated at 07:16 ET
A six-year-old boy from Oxford is taking part in his first adult chess tournament after becoming obsessed with the game.
Callaghan McCarty-Snead took up chess last summer because he suffers from bad asthma.
Now he is captain of his chess team at SS Philip and James Primary School, playing against children who are two years older then him.
He also regularly beats his father Steve at chess.
Mother-of-five Sarah McCarty-Snead said: “Neither of us used to play chess.
“We were looking for a game or a sport Callaghan could play indoors.
‘Youngest grandmaster’
“We bought Lego chess, a computer game, and he quickly progressed through all the levels. He would just spend hours playing it.”
Callaghan was so enthused by chess that his father helped set up a chess club at his school.
He regularly plays against children two or three years older than himself.
Mr and Mrs McCarty-Snead have also employed a chess instructor to teach him the finer points of the game.
“His goal is to be the youngest grandmaster,” said Mrs McCarty-Snead.
“He practises daily for hours, he’ll wake up at [5am or 6am] at the weekends to go to a tournament and play all day, then he’ll want to carry on playing chess when he comes home.”
Callaghan is also teaching his four-year-old sister to play chess.
He will be taking part in the 35th annual Kidlington Chess Congress all day.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk
Does he have a rating?
That’s all good and well but what’s his rating? With only1 year of playing he can’t be that advanced. Are we talking 1800,2000,2200+ ELO?
His rating is low online, only 53, however at the tournament it states he is 75. He won his first round in tournament, lasted 2 hours in the 2nd and lost. I’ve been following the story.
well, for six years old, it looks like a child prodigy. I would love to play him someday!