There is no doubt that Faustino Oro will remain for history, and even more so if it persists within the world of chess with that tenacity that identifies him. After beating the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, multiple world champion, in a match, he achieved a new achievement: going undefeated in the XVII Absolute Continental Championship of Chess from America.
He was in the escort position along with eight other chess players, an opportunity in which he totaled 8.5 points out of 11. It is, strictly speaking, the first time that such a young participant manages to share second place in the classification: he came 8th for tiebreaker, without being defeated on any occasion.
In fact, during this championship, the little Argentine beat Georg Meier, a player of chess German who has been competing for Uruguay since 2021, and who had been the winner of the last edition. Faustino put his rival on the ropes by making him lose his “queen” or receive checkmate in the next eight moves, so the Grandmaster abandoned the game.
Faustino Oro, the “Messi of Chess”
All expectations are placed on this little 10-year-old Argentine, who never ceases to surprise and has already been classified as the “Messi” of the chess. He got into this sport during the coronavirus pandemic, when he was only six years old, and he is already number one in the world in the under 10 ranking in a sport where, to stand out, you need to be a genius in mathematical logic, tactics and strategy.
Faustino Oro has such good conditions for the game of chess, who became the youngest player to reach the ELO score of 2,300, the minimum to be “FIDE Master”. This category is the seventh of 16, something reached by about 900,000 players around the world, while in the “Beginner” category it is estimated that there are more than 100 million players, according to FIDE.
Faustino’s parents, Alejandro and Romina, told Spanish media that it is very difficult for them to get their son to balance the passion he has with the chess with his other obligations: “He has twelve hours of classes per week with specialized teachers.” It reaches 20 hours of play per week, so it would not be strange to see it grow more every day.
