GM Faustino Oro has officially been awarded the GM title by FIDE, making the 12-year-old Argentinian “Messi of Chess” the youngest current grandmaster. The confirmation comes shortly after he broke 3300 in blitz on Chess.com, giving an extra boost a week before he begins his next quest at the Legends & Prodigies II in Madrid, Spain.
Oro’s title was approved at the second FIDE Council meeting of 2026, held online on August 23, with the decision published five days later. His official FIDE profile has now been upgraded from international master to the shiny new grandmaster title.
The update completes the final step in a journey that began almost a year ago. Although Oro had already completed all requirements for the title at the Sardinia World Chess Festival on May 9, grandmaster titles are not formally awarded until they have been approved by the chess governing body.
Oro succeeds 15-year-old Turkish prodigy GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, who had been the world’s youngest current grandmaster since FIDE formally approved his title just over two years ago. Erdogmus completed the requirements for the title at 12 years, nine months, and 29 days.
Oro is the second-youngest player ever to qualify for the title, at the age of 12 years, six months, and 26 days, behind American GM Abhimanyu Mishra, who set the record at 12 years, four months, and 25 days in 2021. Oro surpassed former record-holder GM Sergey Karjakin, who became a grandmaster at 12 years and seven months in 2002.
The Argentinian scored 6/9 in the 158-player open in Sardinia, which featured 29 grandmasters. A penultimate-round victory over IM Bartlomiej Niedbala, followed by a final-round pairing against two-time world championship challenger GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, guaranteed Oro the required performance regardless of the result of his last game.
“Now I am a GM. I am really, really happy,” Oro said after securing his final norm in Sardinia.
Fausti, as he is nicknamed, analyzed the crucial game in a new video for Chess.com.
You can play through Oro’s crucial win over Niedbala here:
His first GM norm came at the inaugural Legends & Prodigies tournament in Madrid in September 2025, where he dominated the field with an undefeated 7.5/9. During the same event, he crossed 2500 to become the youngest player in history—and the first under the age of 12—to reach that rating.
The second norm followed three months later at the Szmetan-Giardelli Masters in Buenos Aires, where he scored 5.5/9. Oro then narrowly missed the chance to break Mishra’s age record at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow, losing a must-win final-round game, before completing the title in Sardinia two months later.
3300 On Chess.com
Oro’s meteoric rise has continued online. Last week, he crossed 3300 in Chess.com’s blitz rating for the first time, taking him to the top-10 highest-rated players on the platform.
The milestone improves on the personal best of 3295 he set in February, when he climbed to fifth place on the Chess.com blitz leaderboard. At the time, the 12-year-old had gained around 150 points in a month through a series of impressive Titled Tuesday performances.
At the age of 10, Oro became the youngest player to reach 3000 in Chess.com blitz, while his results against the world’s leading players have shown that the number is not merely symbolic. Last month, he defeated GM Magnus Carlsen in one of eight 3+0 blitz games between the pair. Carlsen won the informal match, with three draws, but it was Oro’s fourth online victory against his favorite player after his first win, a bullet game, as a 10-year-old in 2024.
His latest rating on FIDE’s September list is 2537, placing him seventh in Argentina. He has been selected to represent his country for the first time at the 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Back To Madrid
Before that, Oro will make his first tournament appearance as a grandmaster when he returns to Madrid for Legends & Prodigies II, which takes place on September 7-12.
He returns as the defending champion and will face five experienced GMs: David Anton, Jose Martinez, Ivan Sokolov, Diego Flores, and Pepe Cuenca, competing in a double round-robin over 10 rounds.
One year ago, Oro arrived at the same venue as an international master chasing his first GM norm. He returns as the youngest grandmaster in the world, with 3300 broken online and his next over-the-board target already clear: 2600.
77 New Titles
Oro was one of 77 players whose titles were approved at the FIDE Council meeting on August 23. The Council approved the Qualification Commission’s recommendations for 17 GM titles, four WGM titles, 49 IM titles, and seven WIM titles.
India accounted for 15 of the recipients, the most of any federation.
GM Titles
| FED | Player |
| Zhandos Agmanov | |
| Aronyak Ghosh | |
| Valentin Baidetskyi | |
| Khumoyun Begmuratov | |
| Vaclav Finek | |
| Harry Grieve | |
| Harshavardhan G B | |
| Jason Liang | |
| Mayank Chakraborty | |
| Faustino Oro | |
| Nikoloz Petriashvili | |
| Liam Putnam | |
| Eytan Rozen | |
| Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov | |
| Adar Tarhan | |
| Zhihang Xu | |
| Yuanhe Zhao |
IM Titles
| FED | Player |
| Aayush Bhattacherjee | |
| Apaar Saxena | |
| Rose Atwell | |
| Gediz Avsar | |
| Alexandre Bacrot | |
| Peter Balint | |
| Artem Bardyk | |
| Atakan Mert Bicer | |
| Maksim Chertkov | |
| Deboushnik De | |
| Robert Ernst | |
| Samid Eduardo Escalona Landi | |
| Paul Chambers Ezra | |
| Isaac Antonio Garcia Guerrero | |
| Garv Gaur | |
| Ethan Guo | |
| Marcel Harff | |
| Havard Haug | |
| Jasper Holtel | |
| Jake Shanty | |
| Mykola Korchynskyi | |
| Konstantin Kornienko | |
| Mandar Pradip Lad | |
| Yi Liu | |
| Mauricio Emmanuel Marrujo Pardo | |
| Vladimir Maslovskiy | |
| Seyed Abolfazl Moosavifar | |
| Maciej Nurkiewicz | |
| Kosma Pacan-Milej | |
| Mateusz Paszewski | |
| Hongchi Peng | |
| Milan S Popovic | |
| Ivan Povshednyi | |
| Kirill Putrenko | |
| Rohit S | |
| Sargis Vach Sargsyan | |
| Anna Shukhman | |
| Lukas Stauskas | |
| Suleyman Suleymanli | |
| Bayastan Sydykov | |
| Maxim Timoshin | |
| Shahin Valiyev | |
| Aras Vardanyan | |
| Albert Winkelman | |
| Lachezar Yordanov | |
| Oleksandr Yurovskykh | |
| Fulvio Zamengo | |
| Hengyi Zhu | |
| Adam Zielonka |
WGM Titles
| FED | Player |
| Anna-Maja Kazarian | |
| Mahalakshmi M | |
| Filipa Fortuna Pipiras | |
| Sarayu Velpula |
After about 2.5 years, the road to WGM is complete. I’m officially WGM starting today!! 🥹🥹🥹
Something that felt so far away is now in my hands. It feels so surreal! Thank you to all my supporters for being part of this journey and believing in me no matter what ♥️ I couldn’t… https://t.co/lGj6Nv3c8i pic.twitter.com/NIwyFMQVtX
— Anna-Maja Kazarian (@AMKazarian) September 2, 2026
WIM Titles
| FED | Name |
| Aamuktha Guntaka | |
| Arshiya Das | |
| Madinabonu Khalilova | |
| Polina Kobak | |
| Cyrielle Monpeurt | |
| Sachi Jain | |
| Sreekarthika Velmurugan |
