13-year-old Marc from Barcelona scores GM norm

It’s been a tough year for chess prodigies, but 13-year-old Corsican Marc’Andria Maurizzi is one good result away from the grandmaster title after finishing unbeaten on 6.5/9 in the Barcelona GM Tournament held from 16-24 February. That saw him take 2nd place behind 2016 French Champion Matthieu Cornette, who was also unbeaten on 7/9. French FM Joachim Iglesias reports on the event, highlighting some of the best combinations involving French players. Test yourself if you can find them!

Matthieu Cornette and Marc’Andria Maurizzi dominated the field in Barcelona, finishing as the only unbeaten players, a full 1.5 points clear of the tie for 3rd place. You can click on any result in the table below to go to the game, or hover over a player’s name to see all their results.

Marc’An has therefore scored his 2nd grandmaster norm at the age of just 13 and looks well on course to become the youngest French grandmaster of all time, despite the time lost to the pandemic.

The youngest French GMs ever are currently:

1. Etienne Bacrot, 14 years, 2 months (in 1997)
2. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 14 years, 4 months (in 2004)
3. Joël Lautier, 16 years, 10 months (in 1990)

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