Faustino Oro interview: 12-year-old ‘Messi of Chess’ eyes youngest grandmaster record, but is unfazed by pressure

“There’s no pressure about the record. Like I say in all my interviews, I try to play my best chess and enjoy chess. For me, it’s a sport,” Oro tells The Indian Express in an interview from his home in Badalona a few hours after he turned 12. “I am not focussing on the record of being the youngest grandmaster in history. I will try to do that, obviously. But I am more focused on playing my style of chess and trying to improve a bit more every day. And well, if I improve a bit more each day, the grandmaster title will appear.”

Ask Oro how he has been creating records “appear” at will, and he starts explaining his playing style: “I’m a positional player a bit, but with tactics. I like tactics, and I believe I am a tactical player too. But I believe I’m not dynamic. (Positional players focus on long-term strategy and try to improve the position over several moves, while dynamic players will seek immediate ways to confront the opponent.) I don’t try to check my opponent in 20 moves. I try to play positional. But if I need to play a dynamic position, I play it. I may be a positional player, but with tactics. That, I believe, is my style. I try to win in the end by playing positional chess. I’m not trying to win fast. I try to play good chess and focus on winning the game.”

Football’s loss becomes chess’s gain

It’s just been six years since he was introduced to chess by his father, Alejandro, to prevent the restless boy of six from kicking the football against walls for hours at a stretch while they were in COVID lockdown. In these six years, he’s already become the world’s youngest international master (a record now broken), the youngest player ever to cross 2500 rating, and the second youngest to earn a Grandmaster norm. He’s also defeated players like Magnus Carlsen—thrice, he reminds us—and Hikaru Nakamura in online games besides playing against five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand in exhibition games.

Faustino Oro during the Chess Olympiad last year. (PHOTO: Mark Livshitz via FIDE)

“Both Magnus and Vishy are incredible players and legends. I played Magnus online and Vishy over the board, so it was kind of not the same. Both are incredible. Against both players, for me, it was just a chess game.

I didn’t have any pressure because I believe they should have won against me because they are better players. So I don’t have the pressure,” Oro says before rattling off his record against Anand and Carlsen.

“With Magnus I played eight games and I won three. He won four. One draw. With Vishy, we played in Italy this year in June and then in July in Lyon. And we played two games in Italy, he won 2-0. Then in Lyon, he won 3.5-2.5. So losing score with both,” he says.

Clash of Generation exhibition match between Viswanathan Anand and Faustino Oro. (Special Arrangement/Niklesh Jain)

In the coming few months, Oro will also be visiting India twice. First for the FIDE World Cup in Goa, and then for the Global Chess League, where he earned an ambassador’s spot after winning his category at the GCL Contenders tournament online. This means that if any GCL team needs a short-term replacement on the prodigy board during the tournament, Oro will slot in.

“The organisation and the level of competition (at GCL Contenders) was really high and it was a fantastic experience. I am really happy that I won the tournament and that I played good chess against the world’s top junior players,” says Oro.

Education a priority even while breaking records

Unlike Indian prodigies, who focus solely on chess from a very young age, Oro still attends school daily from 8 am to 12.30 pm. Only after returning home does he indulge in chess: practising, playing games, solving puzzles for about six or seven hours a day. Even on Sundays, unlike many other prodigies, he usually spends just six hours on chess. Never more than that.

Faustino Oro, the 11-year-old prodigy from Argentina, competes at the FIDE Rapid and Blitz tournament two years ago. (PHOTO: FIDE/Lennart Ootes)

Ask him what he likes to do when not playing chess, and he replies: “Football! Before I started to play chess, I liked football. Even now I like it. I watch Argentina’s games. When (Lionel) Messi plays, I like to watch him play. I admire him very much.”

For a boy nicknamed the ‘Messi of Chess’, Oro is the complete antithesis of the Argentine football legend, who is famous for being notoriously shy in interviews. Despite English not being his first language, Oro can be quick-witted in his responses. He used to have his own YouTube channel, where he would stream games and offer analysis, but it was reportedly taken down by the video platform because Oro was under the permitted age.

Ask him about the nickname comparing him to Messi, and he says: “I believe our levels are different: Messi is the top, the best football player in history. But I am a good player. Obviously, I’m not the best player in history. Maybe I’m a good player for my age. (But the similarity is that) Maybe he focusses on winning football games and I focus on winning my chess games.”