He is only 10-years-old but a Chinese chess star is being tipped as a future Grandmaster after winning joint first prize in the Open at Huddersfield Chess Congress.
Yichen Han’s performance over the weekend by gaining 4.5pts over six games caused a sensation at the Huddersfield Ukrainian Club, Edgerton, as he put many higher graded players to the sword.
Seemingly nerveless, he was unfazed despite taking on some of the country’s top players including Fide Master Paul Macklin.
And in the final round of six with around a dozen spellbound people watching his incredibly tense game, Han held his nerve on Sunday evening to claim a hard-fought draw against Dr Peter Shaw, to win the prize along with Mr Macklin who is from the Manchester area.
Peter, 38, of Wakefield, who is among the top 20 players in Yorkshire, said: “He is obviously pretty good and a likely Grandmaster in the future.
“To have achieved what he has done at such a young age is quite astounding.
“He is the best 10-year-old I have ever played by some distance. He could go to the very top.
“I was pushing for a win but he defended quite well and in the end I blew it in the last few minutes and it was a draw.”
Afterwards, watched over by his proud parents, Han was presented with his prize of £225 and a certificate.
Asked what he was going to do with the money he said he didn’t know.
Han, who was born in the Netherlands and who lives in the Newcastle area, took part in the European chess championship in Prague in 2016 and also played in the world chess championship in Brazil 2017.
The 10-year-old Dutch wunderkind has an outstanding pedigree. On November 18-19 last year he played in the British Rapidplay Open in Leeds, drawing with Grandmaster Nigel Davies, at one time one of the top 100 players in the world.
Last year he won the Under 11 section of the British Chess Championships in Llandudno with a 100% score of 7/7.
He began playing chess in the Netherlands and won many major competitions over there in the Under 11 category.
