I received probably over 400 messages and comments about Ray Robson’s final GM norm. A number of people have pointed out to me that Ray clinched his final GM norm and won the PanAm Junior Championship after 8 rounds as he was 2 points ahead of his nearest rival heading into the final round 9.
However, a number of people have also pointed out that Ray started out with the score of 7/7, a full 2 points ahead of his nearest rival, and he actually clinched the tournament after only 7 rounds as #2 and #3 player only finished with 6.5 points.
To make matters even more complicated, I have seen different numbers in various sources for Fabiano Caruana. According to Wiki (which is often not very reliable), Fabiano became a GM at 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days. I have also seen 14 years, 11 months, and 15 days as well as 14 years, 11 months, and 10 days (this one is for sure wrong). Don’t FIDE or any other organization keep an official count of this?
By the way, Ray gained 40 points since September 1, 2009. Therefore, his new rating should be approximately 2567! I expect Fabiano to break the 2700 in 2010.
Here is the unofficial list:
1. Sergey Karjakin, 12 years, 7 months, 0 days
2. Parimarjan Negi, 13 years, 4 months, 22 days
3. Magnus Carlsen, 13 years, 4 months, 27 days
4. Bu Xiangzhi, 13 years, 10 months, 13 days
5. Teimour Radjabov, 14 years, 0 months, 14 days
6. Ruslan Ponomariov, 14 years, 0 months, 17 days
7. Wesley So, 14 years, 1 month, 28 days
8. Etienne Bacrot, 14 years, 2 months, 0 days
9. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 14 years, 4 months
10. Péter Lékó, 14 years, 4 months, 22 days
11. Hou Yifan, 14 years, 6 months, 16 days
12. Anish Giri, 14 years, 7 months, 2 days
13. Yuriy Kuzubov, 14 years, 7 months, 12 days
14. Dariusz Swiercz, 14 years, 7 months, 29 days
15. Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, 14 years, 10 months
16-17. Ray Robson, 14 Years, 11 Months, 15 days / 16 days
16-17. Fabiano Caruana, 14 years, 11 months, 15 days / 20 days
18. Humpy Koneru, 15 years, 1 month, 27 days
19. Hikaru Nakamura, 15 years, 2 months, 19 days
20. Pentala Harikrishna, 15 years, 3 months, 5 days
21. Judit Polgar, 15 years, 4 months, 28 days
22. Alejandro Ramirez, 15 years, 5 months, 14 days
23. Bobby Fischer, 15 years, 6 months, 1 day
Not included on this list is Jorge Cori of
Regardless of the record, I am a fan of both of them. Both have incredible support from their families, especially their Dads (Lou and Gary). I believe both Fabiano and Ray will be 2700+ players for years to come and I am very proud of both of their achievements.
Go Fabiano and Ray!
‘Don’t FIDE or any other organization keep an official count of this?
No we don’t. We do keep a straight record of whether you have paid the required amoount of tax or not.
FYDE IRS
I’m not confused – and it’s more important to be specific about more important things.
Missing from this list is the young armenian GM Samvel ter-Sahakian, birth date 19/9/1993, who completed his GM norms during the European Individual Championship in Plovdiv, april-may/2008.
He shared 1-5 places in the world youth championship in Vietnam (under-18) in october/2008 and just won the European under-18 championship in Fermo/Italy.
They’re both great players.
‘Missing from this list is the young armenian GM Samvel ter-Sahakian, birth date 19/9/1993’
Armenia is big patzer.
Ukraine and Armenya have the most losses of their players to players rated 200 points or more against them in period 2005-2008.
‘They’re both great players.’
They just better memorize than others.
Anand is not loved any more in Spain, like he was before.
Topalov is almost bald.
Anna Zatosnkih could hold both of them in a short match.
Anna Zatosnkih can hold me down anytime!
No, FIDE do not keep an official count of how many messages Susan receives about Ray Robson’s GM qualification.
… except it’s probably over 401 now.
I cannot imagine receiving that many messages about such a topic. Susan, how you suffer for your art on all our behalves!