Iranian young chess grandmaster Parham Maghsoodlou increases his World Chess Federation (FIDE) rating to 2,638 points to become the first Iranian to reach this position.
This is the highest standing achieved by an Iranian in the history of the sport, IRNA reported.
Maghsoodlou, 18, is placed fifth in the FIDE world juniors’ ranking. Chinese Yi Wei with 2,743 points is atop the list. With a ten-point difference, Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland is at second place.
Russian Vladislav Artemiev with 2,704 points and Jeffery Xiong from the US with 2,661 points are ranked third and fourth respectively.
Maghsoodlou’s rating was 2,615 before Sharjah Masters Cup last month and he improved it to the current rating coming out as the victor at the tournament with seven wins and two draws.
In the Sharjah cup, Maghsoodlou defeated Artemiev who has a higher rating than him. The young player said he attends international tournaments without any financial support and coach.
Maghsoodlou was awarded the title of grandmaster by FIDE in 2016, the same year he won the title of international master, the federation’s website wrote.
He played in the Chess World Cup 2015 and represented the country at the 42nd Chess Olympiad in 2016. He won the Iranian Chess Championship last year.
Currently, Iran is 28th int the FIDE countries ranking that has improved 23 steps in comparison with 2015 when it was at 51st place.
