Bu within smelling distance of landmark Chinese boy set to become youngest GM

With Bu’s arrival, Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov’s record will take a tumble by 65 days. At the time when he made his last GM norm, Bu was 13 years, 10 months and 13 days young old.

Bobby Fischer’s record as the youngest Grandmaster at 15 years and six months stayed for 33 years before Judit Polgar of Hungary set a new mark in 1991, erasing the old one by a month. It looked like a big breakthrough but in the last nine years, this record fell five times.

Polgar kept the record for three years before surrendering it to countryman Peter Leko, who pierced the 15-year age mark and achieved it at 14 years and four months in Wijk Aan Zee. Etienne Bacrot improved it by two months and Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine brought it further down by two months in 1997.

After three years now, Bu has taken the record below the 14-year mark and raised visions of a new order in Grandmaster chess.

Born on December 10, 1985 in Qingdao, the coastal city of China, Bu learned the moves at the age of six and at 12, he finished fourth in the World under-12 championship in France. A year later, he won the World title in the under-14 category.

It was in 1999 that Bu came into his own. If the first half exploits gave Bu the IM title, the second half was even more hectic as he completed three GM norms in 35 days. Between February and May, 1999, he picked up IM norms at Myanmar, First Saturday (Budapest) and Lausanne Open to become China’s youngest IM. Then in September, he was in pursuit of GMs — he met 25 GMs during this period, beating 11 of them and losing nine with five draws — in the category 10 event in Paks, Hungary, First Saturday, second Kluger Memorial in Budapest and back home in Qingdao Daily Cup. The GM norms came without a break.

However, there were doubts about his last norm in Qingdao. According to Fide stipulations, no more than two rounds per day for two days shall be played and not more than one round per day in the last three rounds. Chinese federation clarified that two rounds were played on the third and fourth days of the nine-round all-play-all event and days 5, 6, 7 had only one round each.

Bu was invited to play in the Kasparov Chess World Cadet Grand Prix later.

The world women’s champion hails from China. If Bu can brace himself up to become the next world champion in the near future, it would be a great double for China.