Oro, comrades: a 12-year-old Argentinean will compete with grandmasters from the Russian Federation

Faustino Oro, a 12-year-old Argentine, can become the youngest grandmaster in the history of chess if he successfully performed at the Aeroflot Open 2026. This is one of the main intrigues of the tournament, which will be held in Moscow from February 27 to March 6. Among the Russians this year, it is worth highlighting Yan Nepomnyashchy, who is the rating favorite and the current winner, and Andrei Esipenko— a participant in the 2026 candidates tournament. Many strong grandmasters from other countries also came to Moscow — Raunak Sadhwani and Leon Luke Mendonka (India), Hayk Martirosyan and Aram Hakobyan (Armenia), Bardia Daneshwar and Sina Movahed (Iran). The championship in Moscow has one of the highest prize funds among all open tournaments in the FIDE calendar - 20 million rubles.

Who will speak at the Aeroflot Open 2026

Last year, the International Chess Festival celebrated its 20th anniversary with a very representative cast. At that time, four players with a rating of 2700+ participated in the tournament: Russians Jan Nepomnyashchy and Daniil Dubov, American Hans Niemann and Hungarian Richard Rapport. The winners of the Aeroflot Open of previous years, Iranian Amin Tabatabai and Azerbaijani Aydin Suleymanli, were also in the application.

Nepomnyachtchy won a landslide victory (he won this tournament for the fourth time, the third of them in the classic control), scoring 7 points out of 9. Ivan Zemlyansky created serious problems for Yan then. The youngest grandmaster in the history of Russia performed well, eventually taking 11th place in such a reputable company, adding more than 13 rating points. Richard Rapport and Andrey Esipenko made the top 3, ahead of Maxim Matlakov, Sergey Lobanov, Amin Tabatabai, Alexey Goganov, Hans Niemann and Bardia Daneshvar in additional indicators.

This time, tops like Niemann and Rapport didn't make it to Moscow, but the line-up is still strong. One of the main intrigues is the performance of Andrei Esipenko. Our grandmaster, who excelled at the 2025 World Cup, will take the last test before the 2026 Candidates tournament, which begins at the end of March in Cyprus. Andrey got into the top eight of the chess crown for the first time and may well surprise.

"I have great respect for Andrey's chess talent, but it's difficult for me to call him a favorite [of the candidates tournament], primarily because of the rating and lack of victories at major starts," vice-world champion Fabiano Caruana emphasized in his podcast. — At the same time, he is extremely talented and very dangerous, really very dangerous as an opponent. This does not mean that he already has everything he needs to win such a large-scale tournament. I would not consider him one of the favorites, but he is quite capable of showing high results and seriously influencing the tournament fight.

At the last two Aeroflot Open, Esipenko took second and third places. Why not win this time?

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The youngest grandmaster

It will also be very interesting to follow Alexey Grebnev, who entered the top 10 of the starting list. At the 2025 World Cup in India, the Tolyatti native reached the 1/8 finals, confidently knocking out David Navara and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from the fight for the trophy. After that, Alexey made his debut in the top 100 of the world ranking. He can claim a place in the top 3 at the Moscow tournament. As well as a number of other young talents, Leon Luc Mendonca, Chess Olympiad medalist Raunak Sadhwani, and current Russian champion Arseniy Nesterov. The opponents will now have a different mindset for the games with Savva Vetokhin, Artyom Uskov and Lev Zverev. Our titled juniors must show class under pressure.

Faustino Oro also reached the Russian capital. The Argentine child prodigy, who will turn 13 in the fall, has already broken several age records: in particular, he became the youngest chess player to cross the 2,500 rating point mark. Now, an even more significant achievement is on the agenda — following the results of the Moscow tournament, Faustino may become the youngest grandmaster in history.

At the moment, Oro has fulfilled two of the three grandmaster standards required. The Aeroflot Open will be Faustino's last chance to break the record of Abhimanyu Mishra, who won the title at the age of 12 years, 4 months and 25 days. If Oro fails to meet the norm in Moscow, then he will no longer have time to surpass the current record holder (it is necessary to fix all the standards by March 11).

In addition, it would be interesting to watch the Argentine duel with our starlet, 11—year-old Roman Shogdjieff, who will also play at the Aeroflot Open.

— Over the past 20 years, this tournament has become a place of triumph and a launching pad for many chess stars, starting with Magnus Carlsen, the current world champion Gukesh Dommaraja, Alexander Grischuk, Jan Nepomniachtchi, Rameshbab Pragnanandhi, as well as for young athletes — Artem Uskov, Savva Vetokhin, Roman Shogdjieff and other talented children, — said in the conversation Andrey Filatov, President of the Russian Chess Federation, told Izvestia. — I hope that this year someone will be able to pleasantly surprise the chess community.

The championship in Moscow has one of the highest budgets among all the open tournaments in the FIDE calendar.