Susan Polgar Chess Daily News and Information: Big step to becoming a GM

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Big step to becoming a GM Jul 6th 2013, 03:03, by Chess Daily News Yang-Fan Zhou takes significant step on way to becoming a grandmaster Leonard Barden The Guardian, Friday 5 July 2013 13.56 EDT England's best teenage player scored his first grandmaster result this week, overcoming an earlier disappointment and winning an international tournament without the loss of a game. Yang-Fan Zhou, 18, is targeting the GM title in his gap year between Whitgift School, Croydon, and reading for a chemical engineering degree at Churchill College, Cambridge. Zhou had an unlucky near-miss at last month's UK league where his seasonal rating on the global chess body Fide's performance scale was 2598, two points shy of the 2600 GM level. His result would have been above 2600 but for the fact that the league used seasonal start ratings rather than current ratings which will be mandatory next season. The teenager faced a tough test in this week's Big Slick International at Purley, Surrey, where the required GM score was a high 7/9, leaving little room for error. Zhou opted for a daring approach, steering key games into complex tactics where he occasionally stood worse but his opponents were provoked into error. His unbeaten 7/9 total took first prize. Zhou now has the momentum of success and hopes to score another two GM results this summer and so qualify for the prestige title before he starts at Cambridge. Back in the 1980s England regularly produced teenage grandmasters and masters but the supply dried up after David Howell set a national age record in 2007 by becoming a GM at 16. Zhou told the Guardian that his ambition beyond the GM title is to be part of an England team contending for medals in the 150-nation biennial chess Olympiad. In the 1980s England twice won Olympiad silver behind the then USSR but performances dipped after the retirement of key players. More here. Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar

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