Lemos Sarro, Damian

Lemos Sarro, Damian

ARG *ELO 2556

Born in 1990 in Buenos Aires, Damian qualified for the IM title in 2006 aged 15 - the youngest Argentinian to do so - and in October 2008 completed his qualification for the GM title - again, he was the youngest native-born Argentinian to reach that level. He is currently ranked number five in Argentina. In a recent interview he said that his favourite language was English and his favourite book Alexei Shirov's Fire on Board. He is a friend of Magnus Carlsen and was born in the same year (which was a particularly fruitful one for brilliant young players - Karyakin, Vachier-Lagrave and Howell were all products of the vintage 1990 harvest). His Internet Chess Club handle is 'Blitz-King', which is no exaggeration: his blitz rating is somewhere in excess of 3200. He is a fan of San Lorenzo de Almagro Football Club in Buenos Aires - and sent me a photo of him wearing their colours. He recently moved to Spain to further his chess career. He finished a very good second equal at the 2009 Porto Mannu Open, half a point behind the Gibtelecom Festival's very own favourite chessplayer and ace commentator GM Stuart Conquest!.