11-year-old FM Yagiz Erdogmus, in case you have not heard of him before, is a name you should expect to hear again. The young Turkish player is an IM-elect (meaning he has earned the title, only waiting for it to be approved) and number 13 nationally at the time of writing.

After meeting the requirements for the international master title this summer, he has also recently won the ChessKid Youth Speed Chess Championship as part of a thrilling and speedy chess odyssey.

Before the pandemic, the young champion’s FIDE rating was at a modest 1955 by the fateful month when time seemed to stop, March 2020. He didn’t play again until the Silver Lake 2021 tournament in June 2021, and you can already guess that there was a startling jump when he returned. By the first rating update, he had surged 194 Elo points, and his peak rating in 2021 was 2283. He now stands at the lofty 2453, having only broken into the double-digits in terms of age a year ago.

He earned all three IM norms, and the 2400 rating minimum, required for the IM title in 2022—actually, in a span of three months (April-July). He earned the first norm in Turkey and secured the last two in Serbia.

GM Rafael Leitao has annotated a game of his featuring a stellar combinational finish from the Serbia Chess Open 2022, where he defeated three grandmasters and earned his second norm. Interestingly, he had played in the amateur section of this same tournament just a year before, with a sub-2000 rating.

While earning his IM title over the board, he also won the ChessKid Youth Speed Chess Championship online. In the following video, FM Mike Klein analyzes three key moments from the final vs. Argentinian CM Ilan Schnaider. 

Final Standings

Not yet a teenager, Erdogmus has shown the capacity to compete at the game’s highest levels. While his climb in the last year—frankly, in the last few months—has been nothing short of jaw-dropping, surely there will be more to come for this young chess star.