Romanian chess continues to produce remarkable talents, and this weekend Romania marked one of the greatest achievements in the mind sport in the last 36 years.
Romania can boast a youth world vice-champion, in the person of the young Tudor Henry, who at just 15 years old won the silver medal in the Open 16 category at the Youth World Championship held in Montesilvano, Italy.
Over 155 athletes from 70 countries participated in this competition, and the representative of the CSM Constanta club achieved one of the most significant recent performances of Romanian chess at the youth level.
This marks a comeback of Romanian chess to the podium of World Championships, after Corina Peptan's gold at the U14 Girls' World Championship in 1991 in Warsaw. We also remember the achievements of the greatest Romanian chess player in history, Florin Gheorghiu, who won the silver medal at the Junior World Championship in The Hague in 1961, and then became the absolute junior world champion in 1963 in Vrnjačka Banja, then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Returning to Tudor Henry, he is already an international master with a formidable ELO rating of 2460 points. The Romanian athlete achieved eight wins and one draw, accumulating 8.5 points in Italy, just below the gold medalist Khagan Ahmad from Azerbaijan, with an ELO of 2480, who totaled 9.5 points, but ahead of the third-placed Kazakh player Sauat Nurgaliyev, with an ELO of 2490, also with 8.5 points.
"A silver medal that brings Romanian chess back to the world podium! The chess player trained at CSM Constanta by Iulian Mihailov continues his international ascent towards the Grandmaster title! Congratulations, Henry! Congratulations to everyone who contributed to this achievement! Go, Constanta! Go, Romania!" the CSM Constanta club announced.