AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD boy has become the youngest player to defeat a chess grandmaster. David Howell, from Seaford, East Sussex, beat the former British champion, Dr John Nunn, at the Mind Sports Olympiad in London. Nunn is ranked among the world's top 100 players. David's success came in the first round of a "blitz" tournament, a fast-moving game in which players have to complete all their moves in five minutes. Nunn appeared shocked to have lost, but regained his composure sufficiently, helped David set up the board for the next game and went on to win his next five games. David, too, seemed surprised. "I can't believe it," he said. "I'm quite excited by the win. I thought I was going to lose quite badly." His victory broke the record held by another British prodigy, Murugan Thiruchelyam, 10, from New Maiden, Surrey, who defeated the grandmaster Jonathan Levitt earlier this year. David, a pupil at St Andrew's School, Eastbourne, has just secured a sponsorship deal with Gameplayer.com, an online games network. He travels to Greece this week to compete in the European under-10 championships.

In this age of children defeating grandmasters comes news from America that the Japanese-born prodigy, Hikaru Nakamura, became the youngest player to defeat a grandmaster at normal speed chess even earlier than has been reported. I had understood that Nakamura broke the record when he defeated the Argentinean GM, Alejandro Hoffman, at the recent US Open in Reno, Nevada, at the age of 11 years and nine months. In fact, Nakamura's stepfather, Sunil Weeramantry, a Sri Lankan who played chess in Britain in the 1970s and who is now a successful chess coach in America, has pointed out that the youngster defeated GM Alexander Stripunsky at the Land of the Sky Open North Carolina, aged 11 years and two months.

Stripunsky - Nakamura
c3 Sicilian

1e4	c5	2Nf3	Nc6
3c3	e6	4d4	d5
5exd5	Qxd5	6Be3	cxd4
7cxd4	Nf6	8a3	Be7
9Bd3	0-0	l0Nc3	Qd6
110-0	Bd7	12Qc2	Rfd8
13Rad1	Rac8	14Rfel	g6
15Qd2	Nd5	16Ne4	Qc7
17Bh6	Be8	18b4	Nf6
19Bf4	Qb6	20Bf1	Nd5
21bg5	f6	22Bh4	g5
23Bg3	a5	24Nc5	axb4
25Nxe6	bxa3	26Nxd8	Rxd8
27Rb1	Bb4	28Qa2	Bf7
29Bc4	Qa5	30Recl	Kg7
31h4	h6	32hxg5	hxg5
33Rb3	b5	34Bd3	Nc3
35Qc2	Bxb3	36Qxb3	a2
37Nxg5	Rd5	38Ne6+	Kf7
39Nf4	Nxd4	40Bg6+	Kg7

The previous record was held jointly by England’s Luke McShane and the Indian, Surya Ganguly.

Murugan Thiruchelvam, aged 10 years and 10 months, of New Malden, South London, became the youngest player to achieve a tournament rating above 2300 when he registered 2317 in the Mind Sports Olympiad, which was won jointly by Jon Speelman, Alexander Baburin and Lev Psakhis.