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9-Year-Old Ethan Pang Defeats Three Grandmasters In One Event
9-year-old Ethan Pang defeated three grandmasters in a classical tournament in Hungary. Photo: Chess.com.

9-Year-Old Ethan Pang Defeats Three Grandmasters In One Event

TarjeiJS
| 51 | Chess Event Coverage

Nine-year-old CM Ethan Pang, the youngest-ever 2200 player, defeated three grandmasters in a recent classical tournament in Hungary and came close to breaking the 2300 rating barrier for the first time.

Pang, who made headlines in July when he broke IM-elect Faustino Oro's record to become the youngest player in chess history to achieve a rating of 2200, scored a remarkable performance at the Vezerkepzo IM tournament that ended last week in Budapest, Hungary.

Rk. Name Rtg FED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 TB1
1 GM Valeriy Neverov 2412 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 7
2 Dingzhou Cong 2074 0 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 ½ + 1 1 6.5
3 FM Zalan Nemeth 2185 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 5.5
4 AFM Karthikeya Varma Gunturi Pavan 2071 0 ½ ½ 0 0 1 ½ + 1 ½ 5
5 GM Zoltan Varga 2321 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 5
6 GM Milan Pacher 2365 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ 0 1 ½ 5
7 WFM Alana Meenakshi Kolagatla 2200 ½ 0 0 0 1 1 ½ ½ - 1 4.5
8 GM Attila Czebe 2302 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 4.5
9 CM Ethan Pang 2266 0 - ½ - 1 1 ½ 1 0 ½ 4.5
10 AGM Pedagandham Saketh 2051 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 0 + ½ 1 ½ 4
11 IM Attila Jakab 2252 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 3.5

The 9-year-old prodigy from London finished on an impressive 4.5/8 score and a 2300 rating performance after he had defeated three grandmasters and held one IM to a draw. The GMs were rated as low as 2365, 2302, and 2321, but as pointed out by the Guardian's Leonard Barden, they had "decades of experience in high-level tournaments" and should normally have no problem defeating a child who learned the rules a few years ago.

"Three victories against GMs in a single classical tournament by an under-10 is a unique achievement," the legendary chess columnist wrote.

In the last year, Chess.com has covered numerous cases of under-10s defeating grandmasters in classical games. Ashwath Kaushik from Singapore remains the youngest, after he beat 2351-rated GM Jacek Stopa in February at the age of eight years, six months, and 11 days, breaking Serbian Leonid Ivanovic's record set a month earlier.

"Ethan was very happy to have made such a feat, but we had no idea it was breaking some kind of unofficial record," Ethan's father Raymond Pang told Chess.com.

Ethan was very happy to have made such a feat, but we had no idea it was breaking some kind of unofficial record.

—Raymond Pang

Pang now has three entries in the list of the youngest players to beat a grandmaster.

# Year Player Rating Age Opponent Opponent's rating
1 2024 Ashwath Kaushik 1892 8 years, 6 months, 11 days Jacek Stopa 2351
2 2024 Leonid Ivanovic 1865 8 years, 11 months, 7 days Milko Popchev 2193
3 2012 Awonder Liang 1832 9 years, 3 months, 20 days Larry Kaufman 2406
4 2024 Ethan Pang 2266 9 years, 5 months, 9 days Milan Pacher 2365
5 2024 Ethan Pang 2266 9 years, 5 months, 10 days Attila Czebe 2302
6 2024 Ethan Pang 2266 9 years, 5 months, 11 days Zoltan Varga 2321
7 2011 Hetul Shah 1817 9 years, 6 months, 0 days Nurlan Ibrayev 2407
8 2014 Nodirbek Abdusattorov 2057 9 years, 7 months, 27 days Andrey Zhigalko 2600
9 2014 Nodirbek Abdusattorov 2057 9 years, 7 months, 29 days Rustam Khusnutdinov 2495
10 2022 Aaron Mendes 1970 9 years, 10 months, 0 days Razvan Preotu 2445

Pang's first victim was 34-year-old GM Milan Pacher from Slovakia, who went into a poor endgame, in which the nine-year-old converted effectively.

Two rounds later, Pang followed up by outplaying 48-year-old GM Attilla Czebe from Hungary, then finding a nice tactic that eventually concluded the game.

As if that wasn't enough, the prodigy then beat GM Zoltan Varga in just 23 moves when the Hungarian 54-year-old apparently made a miscalculation after the opening, and resigned two pawns down.

After a draw in round six, Pang went on to lose two games in a row, missing an opportunity to break the 2300-barrier virtually. He then had to fly back home to the U.K. with his father in time for the new term at school in London.

Still, his performance was above 2300 and a rating gain of 20 points is an impressive feat by a nine-year-old. Pang heads the list of the highest-rated players born in 2015 or later, ahead of his compatriot WFM Bodhana Sivanandan. CM Roman Shogdzhiev, who beat five grandmasters at last year's World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship, is third.

Pang's father previously told Chess.com that Ethan learned the game at the school's chess club at the age of five. Asked how his son became such a strong player at an early age, he said:

It seems that it ultimately came down to practice. When he is presented with the opportunity to play against strong players, he tends to take it more seriously and apply himself fully. Consistent practice and the chance to compete against different types of opponents were key factors to his chess development.

Ethan is now going back to school, but it's unlikely we've heard the last of him.

TarjeiJS
Tarjei J. Svensen

Tarjei Svensen is a Norwegian chess journalist who worked for some of the country's biggest media outlets and appeared on several national TV broadcasts. Between 2015 and 2019, he ran his chess website mattogpatt.no, covering chess news in Norwegian and partly in English.

In 2020, he was hired by Chess24 to cover chess news, eventually moving to Chess.com as a full-time chess journalist in 2023. He is also known for his extensive coverage of chess news on his X/Twitter account.

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