AN EIGHT-year-old Cypriot schoolboy has won the world chess championship in the category of eight-year-old amateurs, according to a statement by the Famagusta chess club yesterday.
Andreas Hadjinicolaou, the son of refugees from Karavas village in Kyrenia, is in the second grade of the ‘B’ primary school in Dherynia.
After successfully beating his peers in Cyprus, Hadjinicolaou went on to come first in the category of eight-year-olds in the World Amateur Chess Championship 2012 in Halkidiki last month.
According to the statement, this is the first time a Cypriot pupil has reached such dizzying heights in the international world of chess.
In 2010 and 2011, the eight-year-old boy came first in the Cypriot national championships and represented Cyprus at various international tournaments.
Last March, he came first in the Cyprus ‘Friendship’ Tournament and first in the Cyprus competition on solving chess problems. In the same 2012 amateur competition in Greece, Cypriot pupils Solomos Isaak and Haris Hadjiconstantinou came third and second in the categories for 12 and 14-year-olds respectively.
Cyprus Mail
