An 11-year-old boy from Pitt Meadows is rising through the ranks of the Canadian chess world.
Over the Easter long weekend, Lucas Yao competed in a national tournament, against some of the country’s strongest competitors, placing 10th overall and securing multiple major title milestones along the way.
In fact, Yao is the youngest competitor to place in the top 13 at the Canadian Closed Chess Championship that took place in Montreal, Quebec.
The contest acts as a Zonal tournament, serving as a pathway to the FIDE World Cup cycle.
FIDE is a French acronym that stands for International Chess Federation in English.
Yao was able to earn his own National Master title, and he also surpassed the 1900 FIDE rating threshold, the amount of points needed for a Candidate Master title.
Yao began playing chess when he was only five years old during the COVID-19 lock-down.
His father taught both himself and his his mother, Cindy Liu, whom Yao quickly surpassed in skill.
When his parents couldn’t beat him anymore, they found him an online coach, because he enjoyed chess very much.
“What began as a fun activity quickly turned into a passion,” explained Liu.
“He showed strong focus and curiosity early on, and over time, with consistent training, tournament experience, and guidance from coaches, he steadily progressed to a competitive level,” added his mother.
Typically Yao practises playing daily, but, Liu noted, the time he can play varies because of other activities Yao is involved in.
Tao is also a pianist who composed his first piece at the age of four and at five performed at Carnegie Hall.
By the age of seven, Yao could also recite 2,030 digits of pi, and ranked fifth at the time in the country on the World Pi Ranking list.
When he was nine, he defeated an International Master and won the Canadian Youth Chess Championship in the U10 category, and has since represented Canada at the World Cadet Chess Championships multiple times.
“He enjoys the creativity and problem-solving aspect of chess — every game is different, and he loves the challenge of figuring things out over the board,” Liu said.
Now that Tao has achieved a FIDE Master title, he is now working toward the next level, which is a International Master title.
This will mean that Tao will be competing in international competitions abroad.
Tao is hoping to become a Grandmaster in chess one day – the highest level awarded by FIDE.
“We are just trying our best to support him,” said Lui.