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For a player dubbed the ‘Messi of Chess,’ Argentinian Faustino Oro’s first foray into the game indeed came through football. During the Covid-forced lockdown, Oro, then six, would kick a football against the walls at home for hours on end. That is when his father introduced him to chess as a way to get him to stop kicking the ball non-stop.
Oro is now 12. He briefly became the youngest player to become an International Master, he is the youngest to cross the 2500 ELO rating, second youngest to earn a Grandmaster norm, and has beaten Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura in online matches.
At the ongoing Chess World Cup in Arpora, Goa, Oro continues to create waves. In the first round tiebreak, the youngest competitor at the tournament beat 37-year-old Croatia GM Ante Brkic. And on Tuesday, he gave 31-year-old Indian GM Vidit Gujrathi an almighty scare before holding him to a draw.
Oro, with black pieces, played freely while Gujrathi faced time pressure. It was only because Oro played it safe in the end that Gujrathi managed to draw the classical game that lasted 28 moves. On Wednesday, however, the boy from Buenos Aires will start on the front foot, with white pieces.
As many as 17 Indian players are still active in the World Cup, but only two managed to win on Day 1 of the second round. World No.6 and the best ranked Indian, Arjun Erigaisi, began his campaign with a 37-move win over Bulgaria’s Martin Petrov. Junior world champion Pranav V beat Norway’s Aryan Tari in 41 moves.
Crucially for both the players, having won their Day 1 match with black pieces, they will have an advantage on Wednesday as they play with white.
Also playing with white pieces on Day 2 will be Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Aronyak Ghosh, who will both look to overcome a deficit after losing their matches on the first day, against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and two-time winner Levon Aronian, respectively.
World champion D Gukesh began his campaign with a marathon 84-move draw, despite playing with white, against Kazakhstan’s Kazybek Nogerbek. The surprise finalist of the 2023 World Cup, R Praggnanandhaa, also with white, was held to a 60-move draw by Australian GM Temur Kuybokarov.
The only all-India match, between Karthik Venkataraman and Arvindh Chithambaram, ended in a draw, with the former using white pieces.
In the second round, 12 matches featuring Indians ended in draws. They included Pentala Harikrishna, Diptayan Ghosh, Iniyan Pa, Karthikeyan Murali, Narayan S, Pranesh M, Raunak Sadhwani.
On Wednesday, Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa are likely to garner attention as they use black pieces to try and earn a win to avoid taking the round into a tiebreak.
But not to be ignore is a certain 12-year-old from Argentina, who promises to make a splash.
