Athlete of the Week

Bucharest has been, for a few a few days, the international capital of chess. Nine of the worlds top 12 players are currently in Romanias capital city to participate in the SuperBet Chess Classic, the first leg of the Grant Chess Tour circuit. The chess tournament was established in 2015 and was held every year ever since, with the exception of 2020, when it was cancelled due to the pandemic. The circuit is made up of a number of classical chess tournaments, rapid chess and blitz. Chess legend Garry Kasparov is the one who inspired the setting up of the Grand Chess Tour and who contributed to the development of this circuit of tournaments which, starting 2019, also includes Romania. This explains the visit to Bucharest of the former world champion, who took part in the opening ceremony and gave the start of the first round.

Steliu Lambru, 10.05.2022, 13:41

Alongside the first nine players in top 12, Romanias best player, GM Bogdan Deac, aged 20, is also participating, after receiving a wild card. In the first round, Deac played against Russian Ian Nepomniașci and in the second one against the Armenian-born American Evon Aronian. Both matches ended in a draw. Deac won the match against Hungarian Richard Rapport, while the fourth round, against world no. 3, the Iranian Alireza Firouzja, also ended in a draw. Thus, Bogdan Deac collected 3 points and ranks second after the American Wesley So and on the same place with Levon Aronian and the French Vachier-Lagrave.

Bogdan Deac was born on October 8, 2001 in Ramnicu Vâlcea and currently ranks 59th in the world. He became a GM at the age of 14 years , 7 months and 27 days, setting a world record for the youngest GM. He is the player of CS Politehnica Iași. In September 2016, at the Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan, Bogdan Deac played for Romania and had a very good result — 7 points out of 10. His only defeat was in the match against the Georgian GM Levan Pantsulaia. (EE)