12-year-old Leon Mendonca creates history by scoring three IM norms in 17 days!
12-year-old Leon Mendonca had been close to an IM norm on numerous occasions, missing it by a whisker. The strength was always there, but the results weren't coming. The boy kept working hard and in 17 days everything changed! From 31st January to 16th February, Leon played three events in Serbia and scored three IM norms, pumping his rating to 2446 and becoming India's latest International Master at the age of 12 years, 11 months and 3 days! We tell you all about Leon's three fantastic events and how he managed to pull off this amazing achievement of scoring 18.5 points out of 27 rounds against average Elo opposition of 2320. Leon has also sent us an annotated game which we share with you. Read on and be amazed!
Goa's youngster Leon Mendonca had always shown great promise and talent. But the results weren't coming for the lad. Many of the talents in Indian chess, who were born in 2006 and with whom Leon had competed on equal footing at various age group nationals had moved ahead of him. But there is something unique about Leon - he never lets competition get the better of him. Leon knew that IM norms were due since a long time, but rather than focusing on the results, he focused on his chess. There were things that needed to be fixed in his game. The 12-year-old worked on fixing his time pressure issues, fine-tuning his opening repertoire, improving his calculation and results started to come!
Leon's trip to Serbia:
Leon's Elo graph had shown quite some ups and downs throughout the year 2018. From a rating of 2286, he had slumped down to 1998 in March 2018. But then he started performing well and with a series of excellent results, he had pumped up his rating to 2350 by the time the year 2018 came to an end. Although Leon had gained nearly 350 Elo points in the last nine months, his IM norms were not coming. In fact he was close to a norm on so many occasions, only to squander it right at the very end.
In January 2019 after playing the Rilton Cup, Leon decided to play four events in Serbia. The first one was the Third Saturday at Novi Sad, Serbia from the 14th to the 19th of January 2019. Leon gained precious 21.6 Elo points but once again missed his IM norm by half a point.
"Am I ever going to make my norms?" It's natural to get doubts about one's capabilities when you have been close to a norm on numerous occasions and have squandered the chances. But there were three more events to play and if everything went well, Leon could well score all his three norms! At this point it seemed like a distant dream!
Paracin GM Round Robin 2019
The Paracin GM Round Robin was held from the 31st January to the 6th of February 2019. And finally Leon broke the glass ceiling. He played a fine tournament and scored his first IM norm.
The first IM norm held additional importance for Leon because he was in a must-win situation in the last round against fellow Indian Fenil Shah. Leon managed to do it, and quite admirably, sacrificing a piece and playing highly imaginative chess in such a high pressure situation.
Leon Mendonca - Fenil Shah, Round 9
Leon realized the need to spice up the play as he was in a must-win situation. He sacrificed his knight on f7 for just a pawn and got excellent compensation for the piece. Here's the entire game annotated by the youngster himself. Don't miss out on his instructive notes.
Third Saturday 105, Novi Sad, Serbia
The next tournament Leon took part in is the IM norm Round Robin in Novi Sad, Serbia from 7th to 11th of February 2019. Playing at this event Leon was a changed man. He had scored his maiden IM norm and had started to believe in his abilities to a greater extent. He played some fine chess in Novi Sad, scored 7.0/9 and achieved his second IM norm!
Final Ranking after 9 Rounds
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | n | w | we | K | rtg+/- | ||
| 1 | 1 | GM | Savic Miodrag R | SRB | 2486 | 7,5 | 0,0 | 6 | 30,25 | 9 | 7,5 | 7,15 | 10 | 3,5 | |
| 2 | 2 | CM | Mendonca Leon Luke | IND | 2376 | 7,0 | 0,5 | 6 | 25,00 | 9 | 7 | 6,01 | 20 | 19,8 | |
| 3 | 3 | FM | Sai Agni Jeevitesh J | IND | 2325 | 7,0 | 0,5 | 5 | 26,00 | 9 | 7 | 5,42 | 10 | 15,8 | |
| 4 | 5 | FM | Jovanovic Bojan P | SRB | 2270 | 5,0 | 0,0 | 3 | 18,00 | 9 | 5 | 4,73 | 20 | 5,4 | |
| 5 | 9 | Shao Wenbin | CHN | 2153 | 4,5 | 0,0 | 3 | 15,25 | 9 | 4,5 | 3,30 | 20 | 24,0 | ||
| 6 | 6 | IM | Sredojevic Ivan | SRB | 2282 | 4,0 | 1,0 | 3 | 10,75 | 9 | 4 | 4,88 | 10 | -8,8 | |
| 7 | 8 | Zhang Lanlin | CHN | 2189 | 4,0 | 0,0 | 3 | 13,50 | 9 | 4 | 3,74 | 20 | 5,2 | ||
| 8 | 7 | IM | Runic Zoran | BIH | 2346 | 3,0 | 0,0 | 2 | 8,75 | 9 | 3 | 5,67 | 10 | -26,7 | |
| 9 | 10 | Hu Zhiheng | CHN | 2097 | 2,5 | 0,0 | 1 | 9,00 | 9 | 2,5 | 2,64 | 20 | -2,8 | ||
| 10 | 4 | WFM | Yanjinlkham Bayarsaikhan | MGL | 1968 | 0,5 | 0,0 | 0 | 1,50 | 9 | 0,5 | 1,46 | 20 | -19,2 |
With this 19.8 Elo increase, Leon's Elo had now moved to 2428.
Mixed tournament, Novi Sad, Serbia
Leon's final event in Serbia was a mixed norm event with 22 players. This was also held in Novi Sad from the 12th to the 16th of February 2019.
Both Sreeshwan and Aditya had scored two back to back norms. But Leon went on step further and scored his third and final IM norm as well!
Here's Leon's favourite game from the tournament against Chinese Peng Xiongjian:
Leon added another 18 Elo points to his rating and took his live rating to 2446! What a phenomenal trip to Serbia it was for him. In 17 days he scored three IM norms in three consecutive events. Such feats are extremely rare. But it just goes to show that once you have the strength, sooner or later the results are bound to come. All you have to do is just keep working on your game and always keep thinking about how you can become a stronger player. Leon's IM norms came in 17 days, but his result was the culmination of over two years of struggle and hard work.
Leon's family has made innumerable sacrifices and bold decisions to support Leon's chess career. Just to give you ane example - the boy lives in Goa, but has been enrolled in Velammal Vidyalaya in Chennai, because the institute supports chess.
What makes Leon special? ChessBase India asked his coach Vishnu Prasanna, "Leon is a confident young kid and is quite creative in his problem solving abilities. There is a mix of dynamism and technical chess in his play and his calculation is excellent."
Leon's trip to Serbia was a big success. He played four consecutive events. Time to come back home? Not yet, he is travelling to the Aeroflot Open which begins from the 18th of February. It will be interesting to track the youngster's performance there!
Read more:
Interview with Leon by Avathanshu Bhat
|
Your chance to meet Vishy Anand and the young super talents of Indian chess in Bangalore!
@ 06/09/2022 by Sagar Shah (en) |
|
14 साल के लियॉन मेदोंसा बने भारत के 67वे ग्रांड मास्टर
@ 05/01/2021 by Niklesh Jain (hi) |
|
लियॉन नें जीता कुमानिया इंटरनेशनल शतरंज
@ 02/12/2020 by Niklesh Jain (hi) |
|
Stranded in Budapest – but rewarded by the world's best! + Anand returns!
@ 30/05/2020 by Lyndon Mendonca (en) |
|
Lucena in Lockdown #2: IM Leon Mendonca
@ 09/04/2020 by Avathanshu Bhat (en) |
|
12 साल के लियॉन बने भारत के नए इंटरनेशनल मास्टर
@ 18/02/2019 by Niklesh Jain (hi) |