The nine-year-old from the Costa del Sol who's made it to the World Youth Chess Championship in Italy

Pablo Guirado Lara, a nine-year-old chess player from Rincón de la Victoria on the eastern stretch of the Costa del Sol, is representing Spain at the World Youth Championship, which is taking place in the Italian town of Montesilvano until 26 November

Pablo recently became a European Team Rapid Chess champion at an event held in Prague and is now heading off to Italy to compete in the under-10s category along with the rest of the Spanish national chess team.

Ahead of his trip to Italy, Pablo was received by mayor of Rincón de la Victoria, Francisco Salado, who said, “Pablo Guirado is already living history of national chess and a source of pride for our municipality. Guirado's trajectory is unstoppable, reaching a milestone of great complexity at only nine years of age.”

Pablo’s first success was as runner-up in Andalucía at the age of six in 2021 and runner-up in Spain under-sevens. In 2022 he was champion of Malaga, Andalucía and Spain in the U-8 category. In 2023, still as U-8, he repeated his regional and national titles, adding the U-12 Spanish team champion title to his list of honours.

His first season as U-10 player 2024 has resulted in him becoming champion in Malaga province, Andalusian runner-up and third national champion. In addition to all these successes, he also won the Andalusian U-16 regional team championship representing Malaga and the recent European U-10 rapid chess team gold medal, as the most outstanding player on his team.

Chess runs in his family and his parents are two the founding members of the Ajedrez Victoria chess club in Rincón de la Victoria.