Hyderabad: The eight-year-old Leonid Ivanovic from Serbia has itched his name in the history books, becoming the first-ever player under the age of nine to beat a Grandmaster in the classic format on Sunday. Leonid defeated 59-year-old GM Milko Popchev to achieve this historic feat.
With this victory, Ivanovic became the youngest player to register a win over a GM in classical chess at the age of eight years, 11 months and seven days. His opponent was not the strongest or among the highest-rated Grandmasters, but the youngster is still the first player under the age of nine to beat a GM in a classical tournament of chess.
Earlier, the record was held by American GM Awonder Liang, when he defeated Larry Kaufman at the age of nine years, three months, and 20 days. In 2011, Hetul Shah became the youngest ever Indian to defeat a Grandmaster, after beating GM Nurlan Ibrayev in the first round of the seventh Parsvnath International Open Chess tournament when he was nine years and six months old.
In September last year, Ivanovic finished fourth in the Under 8 category of the European Youth Chess Championship. With a World Chess Federation (FIDE) rating of 1865, the eight-year-old is the fourth ranked player in the world, among the players, who were born in 2015 or later.
Speaking about Ivanovic’s achievement with chess.com, his mother Lidija said, "He defeated three FIDE Masters (FMs) and one GM, drew with one FM and one International Masters (IM), and although he also experienced some losses, he feels confident playing against players with the highest chess titles. He looks forward to tough matches against opponents with high ratings and is motivated by recent good results."
Meanwhile, eight-year old Roman Shogdzhiev defeated two GMs and secured three draws in the World Rapid and Blitz tournament which helped to earn praise from his idol GM Magnus Carlsen.
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