The youngest chess grandmaster in history to change Ukrainian citizenship to Russian
21 Apr, 03:16 PM
The youngest Grand Master in chess history, 19 year-old Ukrainian Sergey Karyakin, wants to change his citizenship to Russian, Russian website NewsRu.com reports.
“That was Karyakin’s decision. The reason is simple. Sergey wants to win a World Cup. Russian conditions are more conducive to reaching this aim,” Sergey Karyakin’s father Alexander said.
“We don’t want to say bad things about the Ukrainian side, but let’s take as an example the players of Dynamo Kyiv soccer club. They have a stadium, managers, coaches, a sports base – they have everything. Ukrainian chess players don’t have anything like that,” he added.
The World Chess Federation’s (FIDE) rules allow Grand Masters to play for another country’s chess federation. However, Sergey Karyakin wants to become a legal citizen of Russia. He has filled an application for Russian citizenship and is renting an apartment in Moscow.
According to Russian newspapers, Karyakin will be training under the direction of former Garry Kasparov coach Yuri Dokhoyan. Kasparov named Karyakin his main successor after retiring from professional chess.
Karyakin was a chess prodigy and holds the record for the youngest grandmaster in history, achieving the title at the age of twelve years and seven months. In the January 2009 FIDE rating list he is ranked 27th in the world, third in Ukraine, and the second junior (under 20) in the world.
Source: http://www.mosnews.com
Let’s see: he’s 27th in the world and 2nd junior. Why don’t all those folks have a better chance at the World Cup or World Championship than he? Kasparov was a little premature in his predictions I think.
Having said that, I think he’s right to go to the USSR and get good coaching under good conditions. He should do well.
*an historic change
Good luck to him.