Offer made to Turkish chess player to compete for Germany

ISTANBUL

The 11-year-old Turkish chess player Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş, who is the youngest person in the world with the title of “International Master,” has been offered a series of privileges to compete for Germany by the country’s chess federation.

Erdoğmuş’s big success in chess, which he started in kindergarten, was the 8-year-old championship at the 2019 European Age Groups Championship. At the age of 11, he received the title of the youngest International Master (IM) in the world.

The German Chess Federation, who was impressed by his achievements, made an offer to Erdoğmuş to compete on behalf of the country while in this proposal, even the right to citizenship and the school which he will attend were arranged, stated the young chess player’s parents Gülsüm and Selahattin Erdoğmuş.

“As his family, we want Yağız to play the national anthem at international tournaments, as he has done many times before,” they noted.

Pointing out that her son needs to participate in international major tournaments in less than a year to develop his chess career, mother Erdoğmuş stated that participating in tournaments abroad is seriously costly for them as a civil servant.

The family expects the necessary support from the Turkish Chess Federation in this regard, she added.

Responding to the family’s call, “we will send Yağız to the tournaments. He will participate in a tournament in Barcelona in December,” said Gülkız Tulay, the head of Turkish Chess Federation.

“As Yağız’s achievements increase, it is normal to have offers from different countries,” Tulay added.

Erdoğmuş, who has won 75 medals and 40 trophies so far, now aims to become the youngest “grandmaster” in the world. If he succeeds, he will have this title at an earlier age than Norwegian World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who gained the title when he was 13-and-a-half years old.