A 9-year-old chess player from Moscow sets new world record
Roman Shogdzhiev from Moscow set a world record for the fastest completion of the International Master's standard. He received his first point out of the three required for the title of International Master at a tournament in Belgrade.
Roman Shogdzhiev
Shogdzhiev is also one of the few chess players in the world who, before the age of ten, surpassed the 2,300 point mark in the Elo system, the main indicator of skill in the sport.
The title of International Master precedes the title of Grandmaster. To achieve this, chess players also need to pass the standards. The youngest Grandmasters in history were 12 years old (both Russian Sergey Karjakin and American Abhimanyu Mishra achieved this).
Shogdzhiev, meanwhile, is the current world champion in classical chess and blitz among players under ten years old. In 2023, he became the world champion among players under 8 years old and, in 2022 – European champion.
In the future, Roman dreams of playing a match with the world champion, Norwegian Magnus Carlsen.
Roman was introduced to chess by his father when he accidentally found a board on the balcony. At that time the boy was only 4 years old. He started attending a sports section first in his native Elista (Kalmykia), and then in Moscow, where he now lives with his parents.
The boy's father has nothing to do with chess sport, he works in banking, but his father (Roman's grandfather) was a champion of Kalmykia.
Roman studies remotely in the 3rd grade of a regular school, and is also engaged in a chess section. He also finds time for swimming.
