Eleven years old, top board, three grandmasters beaten: Roman Shogdzhiev is one step from chess history

Roman Shogdzhiev is 11 years old, and grandmasters are running out of ways to stop him. Playing top board for Partizan Belgrade in the Serbian Super Liga, the young Russian scored 6 points from 9 games — a performance rating of 2662 — beating three grandmasters rated above 2600: Ivan Cheparinov, Bharath Subramaniyam and Tin Jingyao. It earned him his second grandmaster norm, to go with the first he won in Ulaanbaatar in June, when he became the youngest player ever to earn one. He now needs just one more norm and about 20 rating points to become a grandmaster — and if he gets there before his 12th birthday in February, he will be the first player in history to hold the title before turning twelve.