8 year old wins Under 1600 tournament

8 year old Kavin Mohan has emerged as the U1600 FIDE Classica Edition 5 tournament at Institute of Chess Excellence today. This
is the third tournament he has won consecutively.

After 8 rounds, he scored 7 points, half a point ahead of Noor Akbar Daniel Iskandar who was the only player who beat Kavin and Benjamin Cheah the leader till the last round.

Benjamin Cheah had 6.5 points against 6 points by Kavin. A draw would ensure a first placing for Benjamin. Kavin was not having any of that even though he was playing the black pieces. He beat Benjamin decisively to take first place.

The time control of 30 minutes plus 30 seconds increment for each move suited Kavin very well. He has always been a fast player. He won a gold medal at the Asian Schools last year and a bronze in Asian Youth in Sri Lanka this year both in the blitz section. It is no surprise that out of 8 games he finished with more time than he started with! In the last round, he had 48 minutes on the clock when he checkmated Benjamin.

So how did he win this tournament against a field much older than him? Kavin used to blunder very easily but this has mostly been corrected. He showed good preparation and fighting spirit in his games. In the position from round 7 below, most of us will write it off as impossible to win even with Black's weaknesses due to the reduced material on the board. But Kavin kept pressing and eventually won!

Kavin receiving his prize from me

On Thursday, 1st August Kavin will leave for Bangkok for the Eastern Asia Youth Championship Under 08 section.