MARGAO
Eleven-year-old Ethan Vaz of Goa has become the World No. 1 in the Under-12 category and India No. 1 in all age categories up to Under-15 (Sub-Junior) in Blitz Chess, which is the fastest format of the sport. In Standard/Classical Chess, Ethan has broken into the Top 10 in the World in the Under-12 category, being positioned at World No. 9, besides also becoming India No. 1 in Under-12 and Under-13 categories.
Ethan has also been awarded the prestigious title of FIDE Master (FM) by the International Chess Federation recently. On June 4, while playing at the 2nd Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament 2023, in Nagpur, Ethan crossed 2100 Elo in classical chess and met the requisite condition for being conferred the direct title of FIDE Master, making him the youngest FIDE Master of Goa. Ethan had become eligible for the direct FM title upon winning the gold medal at Asian Youth Chess Championships 2022, subject to achieving a rating of 2100 Elo.
On July 2, in less than one month of crossing 2100 and becoming an FM, Ethan went on to cross 2300 Elo in live rating during his recent tour of Serbia. Ethan played a set of 3 classical international grandmaster tournaments in Serbia, adding 169 Elo points to his FIDE rating. Amongst his best performances in the classical tournaments, he finished joint 4th and bagged the 7th Place award on tie-break at Silver Lake Open (A Category), while he finished 11th at Vojvodina Open (A category), half a point short of making it into the Top 10 prize list.
At the Paracin Open 2023, Ethan touched a career-high rating of 2332 Elo in standard chess, before settling at 2306 Elo. Before heading back home from the tour, Ethan also played the Austrian Championship in Vienna, where he finished joint 2nd with a performance rating of 2427 and was placed 5th on a tie-break.
In blitz chess, Ethan increased a whopping 184 Elo points at Silver Lake 2023 Open Blitz tournament in June, where he defeated 3 International Masters (IMs), amongst others, and clinched the 4th place award amongst 122 players. In July, he pumped up his rating by an additional 208 Elo points at the International Open Blitz Championship in Paracin, where he defeated 3 IMs, 2 GMs, and 1 FM and finished joint 1st with a performance rating of 2543 and clinched a silver medal on tie-break, amongst 144 players. With an astonishing increase of a total of 392 Elo points, Ethan's Blitz rating now stands at 2371 in the FIDE Rating List (FRL) published in August 2023, making him the World No. 1 in his category.
