Chess: Faustino Oro, the new prodigy

MEXICO CITY (apro).- An Argentine boy, barely 10 years old, is becoming a chess phenomenon. Faustino Oro, born in 2013, started playing chess when the covid-19 pandemic hit. First, like most beginning chess players, he started out self-taught. However, due to his initial talent, he began taking classes with some teachers in his native Argentina.

It soon became clear that Faustino could be a natural talent. In the world classification of the sub 8, sub 10, sub 11 and sub 12 categories, Faustino showed vast superiority and by April 2023 he would become the youngest FIDE Master in the entire history of the science game. It should be noted that this is the first Master title awarded by the International Chess Federation (FIDE, for its French acronym), which sanctions all activities of this activity worldwide.

When he was 9 years old, Faustino achieved the third part of the next title, that of International Master –what is called a “norm”– after finishing runner-up in the ITT Copa Ciudad de Comodoro Rivadavia tournament. And due to his incredible progress in tournaments where players with years of experience never achieve such results, the boy’s parents decided to go live in Spain, to give him better opportunities for chess development in Europe. Today, a group of Argentine investors have managed to sponsor Faustino, so that he can dedicate himself without problems to the scientific game. In fact, he has a group of 5 masters who teach him the secrets of this art that we call chess.

He has shown remarkable ability and his level is starting to be surprisingly good. Remember that he is barely 10 years old. In March 2024, he defeated the best player in the world, Magnus Carlsen, in a bullet-paced game (1 minute per player). He applied the same dose to the current number 2 in the world, Hikaru Nakamura. He has, of course, defeated other stars of the chess firmament.

At the last Continental tournament, he played brilliantly and achieved his second norm (he needs 3), to achieve the title of International Master. At the time of writing this, the “new Messi of chess”, as he is often called, is half a point away from his third and final norm. However, there is a tournament coming up in Barcelona where he could achieve the feat of being the youngest International Master of all time.

It must be admitted that these titles acquired at such a young age are always astonishing, but beyond this, Faustino’s ability in chess is incredible. He started at 7 and three years later he can already boast victories against grandmasters. In fact, Alan Pichot, one of the best Argentine chess players, has indicated that he has no doubt that Faustino will become a grandmaster relatively soon.

The interesting thing here is trying to understand what it is that such a young chess player does to understand the strategy and tactics of the science game with this almost unprecedented ease. It is clear that the tactic is learned relatively easily and there are so many exercise books on “white plays and wins”, “black plays and draws”, etc., those who carry out this activity will be rewarded with a better level of chess. However, when it comes to strategy, the concepts are not so direct, so simple, as they are subtle in many ways and the assessment of positions, of who has the advantage, becomes increasingly difficult to do. . And curiously Faustino reveals an understanding that, to put it colloquially, he already has mature players on the board. It is not simple or easy to explain how this innate talent works in a boy like Faustino. I would venture that perhaps we have given too much value to the experience and maybe, just maybe, this experience is not really important as we have believed.

We will have to follow in the footsteps of the “golden boy”, Faustino, because it is clear to me that he will continue to be the talk of the town in the coming months and years.