Faustino Oro, the 12-year-old Argentinian chess prodigy nicknamed the “Messi of Chess”, is now two steps away from smashing the record of the world’s youngest grandmaster, which is currently held by Indian-origin GM, Abhimanyu Mishra. Oro earned the first of the three norms that are required to become a grandmaster and crossed the 2500-rating threshold as well on the way to winning the Legends and Prodigies tournament in Madrid where he smashed world records for his age.

Oro now holds the record as the first under-12 in chess history to be rated 2500-plus. According to Chess.com, only Gukesh Dommaraju, who went on to become the youngest world champion in history, and GM Illya Nyzhnyk have ever scored a grandmaster norm at a younger age than Oro.

Oro, who will turn 12 on October 14, h

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