A 14-year-old just beat one of the best players in the world at the US Chess Championship
He's playing in his first US Chess Championship - and he just took out Wesley So, the number 8 ranked player on the planet!
That's right, a kid who can't even drive has taken down a Super-GM, rated 2788 (Sevian is 2531, just slightly above the GM threshold).
Wesley So is supposed to be a challenger to Magnus Carlsen, the current World Chess Champion. The number-two US player isn't supposed to be losing in the third round to a youngster who just became a GM.
But this is chess these days. In the era of computer analysis, with players about to study thousands of games and hundreds of variations, GMs are younger and better than ever before.
Hey, this was a risk that the two top US players, Hikaru Nakamura (number 3 in the world) and So (number 8 in the world) were taking by playing the US Chess Championship. The field is full of young players who are rated well below the Super-GM level, defined as being rated 2700 and above.
It was a brilliant win for Sevian - his first showdown with a top player, playing with the black pieces, which was a huge disadvantage. Basically, So committed a blunder as his clock was running down - after being in a relatively solid position for much of the game.
Only three rounds into the the US Chess Championship and it's already getting wild and crazy!
This was the final position. With that powerful rook check and Sevian holding a bishop and a pair of knights, it was inevitable that So would get checkmated, so he resigned.
