Ruben Quintans Breaks Mishra's Record, Becomes Youngest Ever US Chess Expert

Ruben Quintans (Photo courtesy of the subject)

Ruben Quintans of Georgia became the youngest player to cross the 2000 US Chess rating threshold, becoming an expert on June 24 after a fine showing at the one-game-a-week Chess Zone Game of the Week was rated. That tournament bumped him to a live rating of 2010, piggy-backing off his 47-point jump earlier in June after tying for second in the Under-2100 section of the Charlotte Chess Center's Carolinas Classic.

At the age of 7 years, 2 months, and 6 days (as of June 24), Quintans broke GM Abhimanyu Mishra's record from 2016 by well over four months. Before Mishra, the previous record-holder was another familiar name to American chess fans: GM Awonder Liang.

Quintans' coaches are GM Vasif Durarbayli and Tongsen Wang, the head coach at Chesstopia. Both coaches have excellent reputations and track records of working with young talent, with Quintans being just the latest example. Quintans learned chess just 22 months ago, and has already held the top spot in the world rankings for Under-7 players for six consecutive months.

Below is one of Quintans wins from the weekly Chess Zone tournament where he crossed the 2000 rating. He shows a great understanding of his openings, as evidenced by the thematic undermining 10. ... d6, neutralizing White's space advantage.

My favorite moment of this game was 14. ... Nxd4!?, temporarily going pawn-up. Even though he had to return the pawn shortly, he had the better structure after trading queens into a promising endgame. His calculation was accurate, but it's worth noting that 14. ... Qxd4 was an alternative way to nab the pawn, both keeping queens on the board and eyeing the unprotected b2-pawn. The engine apparently slightly prefers this option, but the seven-year-old's choice strikes me as more mature. Keeping queens on would leave White with more opportunities for counterplay, and going after the b-pawn would give her even more chances. Instead, Quintans saw a way to gain a moderate advantage and patiently grow it from there.

White's defensive task grew more difficult with each patient, flexible move from Quintans, until, by move 27, White needed to find a difficult series of moves to have even an outside chance of holding the game. Instead, after White's error, Quintans shifted from positional incrementalism to tactical ruthlessness on a dime with 27. ... Nf5!, winning shortly thereafter.

Congratulations to Ruben, his family, and his coaches on this milestone!