Noam Sasson has come joint-first in the European Rapid Chess Championship 2023 under-10s in Slovenia, following the conclusion of a day and a half of games on Friday.
Sasson has been called a chess prodigy due to his victories in international tournaments; he came joint-first with Svyatoslav Kipen from Ukraine, both scoring 7.5 points over the course of 9 rounds.
Sasson was ranked 12th at the beginning of the tournament and was able to win the first three rounds of games pulling into first place.
However, in the fourth round, he drew against another Ukrainian player, dropping him down to the number two slot.
Three more subsequent wins allowed Sasson to pull ahead and return to the top of the leaderboard and hold that position as he headed into the final round of the tournament.
Sasson's final round was played against Kipen, with Kipen winning, leaving them joint first in terms of points. However, Kipen was considered the overall winner due to his victory in the final round.
Sasson was the only Israeli competing in the tournament with most of the other competitors coming from Eastern and Central Europe.
Other wins
Sasson won the European School Chess Championships 2022 under-9s last year and will compete on Saturday for the European Blitz Chess Championship 2023 under-10s, where he is ranked 8th.
Sasson is a graduate of the "Chess4all" chess club which provides chess training sessions for everyone, teaching children from kindergarten all the way up to pensioners, as well as special sessions for children with special educational needs.
The club has both in-person and online sessions which they have been developing in collaboration with the Education Ministry.