Hastings Masters guards chess tradition and unveils a new 16-year-old star
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China’s Xue Haowen began the event without any Fide titles and ended it as a grandmaster, unbeaten on 7/9 and breaking Judit Polgar’s record as the youngest winner. Hastings is the grandfather of international chess tournaments, first staged in 1895 and annually since 1920, with brief war and pandemic breaks. Its vintage decades were the 1930s, 50s and 70s, when world champions and challengers lined up to compete, while the badminton legend Sir George Thomas and the Bletchley Park codebreaker Hugh Alexander both shared first after defeating renowned opponents.
Nowadays, the Caplin Hastings Masters has publicity problems, sandwiched as it is between the London Classic and Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee, while this year it also coincided with the Carlsen show on Wall Street at the high profile World Rapid/Blitz. Its support from Hastings Council has diminished, so that this year’s event lacked any GMs from the world’s top 200. Hastings had a £10,000 Masters prize fund, compared with £50,000 for the London Classic and £1m for the World Rapid/Blitz in New York.
The Sussex seaside resort maintained its reputation for unveiling new talent. China’s Xue Haowen, aged 16 years and two months, broke Judit Polgar’s 1992-93 record as the youngest ever Hastings winner when he scored an unbeaten 7/9, half a point ahead of six runners-up.
Xue is little known internationally and began the tournament without any Fide titles, but his 2502 rating and his strong track record show that he is already en route to becoming one of China’s leading players, with the potential even to rival China’s top pair, Ding Liren and Wei Yi.