Young chess whiz ready to take on Olympic team
Posted By VINCENT BALL, EXPOSITOR STAFF
Posted 1 hour ago
Reuben McCleary has taken a giant step forward in his quest to become a top-rated chess player.
Competing in an open tournament in Elora last weekend, the 10-year-old Harley resident beat players ranked much higher than him. As an added bonus, he picked up $200 for his efforts and a chance to attend another tournament.
“I’m going to put $25 in my savings and I’ll put $75 towards the tournament fee,” Reuben said Thursday. “I’ll have $100 to do whatever I want and, well, there is this really cool video game I’ve been looking at.”
Going into the tournament McCleary had a ranking of 1,315. Most of the other players had rankings of 1,900. People who play at the master level of chess have rankings of 2,100 or higher.
“I played five games and I won two of them so I’m pretty happy with how I played,” Reuben said. “Most of my opponents were ranked 500 points or more higher than me so I did pretty well.
“I made a mistake in my final game but, oh well, that can happen.”
The matches he lost were really close and Reuben’s father, Rick McCleary, said the results from the weekend represent a breakthrough for his son.
“He showed he has the mental stamina to compete at a high level. On Saturday, each game he played took about 3-1 /2 hours and he played three games, Mc- Cleary said.
“That’s 12 hours of high level chess and you have to remember he’s only 10.”
In addition to the money, Reuben earned a chance to play against Canada’s Olympic chess team at a fundraising tournament in Toronto on Nov. 9 by winning the upset of the day prize. He won the prize by beating someone ranked much higher than him.
“It’s blitz or speed chess which really isn’t his thing,” McCleary said. “The games only last five minutes.
Source: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/
The U.S. should have similar fund raising events.