With his resounding victory at the Madrid Legends and Prodigies tournament still fresh, Fausti is catching up on schoolwork while already preparing for two months of intense chess and new challenges. He will be the youngest-ever participant in the upcoming FIDE World Cup in Goa, and right after, he will compete in the Argentinian Championship, where he has a real shot at the title. In a video call from his home in Badalona, Fausti answered ICC’s questions.

by David Llada

I have a vivid memory of the first time I met Fausti and the very first words I heard from his mouth. It was about two years ago, shortly after his family had moved to Barcelona. I was at the Sunway Chess Festival in Sitges, not far from where they lived, so I invited them to come by in the morning so we could get to know each other.

“Take me to where there is chess,” he asked me with a broad smile, showing not the slightest trace of shyness. That was the first thing he said after “hello.” His straightforwardness made me laugh. “Fausti, the problem is that it’s only 11 am, and the round doesn’t start until 4 pm…” I told him. His smile faded for a moment, but I added, “Let me take you to the analysis room. There’s always something going on there: lectures, blitz games, or players preparing for their matches.” That brought his smile back.

The room had been set up for a 20-board simul scheduled for later, but unfortunately, no one was there yet. I sat at a table with his parents, Alejandro and Romina, and while we talked, Faustino decided to entertain himself by going from one board to another, as if he were giving a simul, but playing against himself. After a few moves, each board featured a different opening. When he eventually got bored, he asked me to play some blitz. I couldn’t refuse. “What a guy! Twenty-five moves and you haven’t blundered yet!” That’s probably the greatest compliment my chess has ever received – only seconds before the blunder came.

Fausti’s quick wit, good humor, and that unmistakable spark in his eyes reminded me strongly of the young Vishy Anand. I was sure I had just met someone exceptional.

Fast forward 25 months, and I’m now speaking with the winner of the Madrid tournament—the youngest player ever to cross 2500 and the second youngest to earn a Grandmaster norm, behind only Gukesh. I wonder which of these accomplishments makes him prouder. “I think the norm. Yes, winning a tournament where almost every player was a GM, and I was only the sixth seed, that’s not bad at all either. I gained quite a few rating points too. So yes, overall, I’m very happy with the norm and with how I played in general.”

The fans now wonder whether he can become the youngest GM ever. Everyone has very high expectations, except the Oros themselves. “We are not thinking about the record,” his father explained to me a few months ago. “We are not even thinking about the GM title yet. Our goal is the first norm, then the second, then the third. Step by step. This probably works better and reduces the pressure. Fausti is just a kid, and we need to shield him a bit from the expectations created around him.”

There seems to be a golden rule in the Oro household: Fausti does what makes Fausti happy. For example, an old-school coach might criticize the amount of time he spends playing blitz instead of studying, say, endgames. But this family’s priority is to raise a happy child, not necessarily the strongest possible chess player. If blitz brings him joy, then blitz it is.

“I’m not very interested in records. Obviously, being the youngest player to hit 2500 made me happy. Being the second youngest in getting a norm, up there with the World Champion, is exciting. But I am not even planning my schedule around getting this record, you know? It would be nice to have it, but I am not going to change my ways to get it.” When I ask whether it is the long-term achievements that matter the most, he gives me a slightly different answer: “I want to play well. I want to have fun – and I am having plenty of it. And then come the long-term goals, yes.”

I ask Fausti about school. Does he miss it when he’s away competing in tournaments, or is it the tournaments he misses when he’s back at school? “This year is a bit harder because I’ve started secondary school, but I think I’ll be able to catch up on the classes I miss. I always did. My favorite subject is Physical Education, but I also enjoy math.” A few months ago, he also began taking private English lessons, and it already shows in his interviews.

“Traveling doesn’t bother me, I actually like it. I mean, I love playing chess, so I’m always excited to travel to a tournament. Maybe my least favorite part is preparing for tournaments, something I don’t really feel like doing. But being at the board, thinking for hours? I enjoy that. I just love chess as a whole,” he says.

How Faustino learned chess is a well-known anecdote. During the pandemic, locked down in their Buenos Aires apartment, Fausti was bored and longed to go outside to play football with his friends. He was driving his parents crazy, kicking the ball around the house, so his father, a longtime regular at ICC, decided to teach him chess. “Had it not been for the pandemic, I guess I would still be kicking a football. Maybe I would have joined a club and played competitively, I don’t know. I’m a Vélez fan and still follow their games. Here in Spain, I support Barcelona; I’ve even been to the stadium once.”

I consider Faustino the first representative of an entirely new generation of chess players: the streaming generation. He got hooked on the game by consuming online content, and most of what he knows comes from watching YouTube videos and streams. “I like watching videos. I watch a lot of them. I don’t like reading, not even chess books. I don’t enjoy it. I’m not a great connoisseur of the classics. There are some famous games I know by heart, like Kasparov–Topalov 1999, Fischer–Byrne 1956, or Anderssen–Kieseritzky 1851. That game is actually insane! These are games that impressed me, but I’m not sure I could come up with, let’s say, a list of my top ten classical games,” he admits.

“Fausti, if you had to choose, what would you prefer: to become the world Champion, like Gukesh, or to become the most popular chess streamer, like Levy?” I ask. The question puts him in a tight spot; he loves streaming, and clearly, he wouldn’t like having to choose. “Well, being World Champion is cooler. I just want to get to the very top, that’s my dream, and I hope I’ll fulfill it. Obviously, that implies more preparation, playing in more events… but I hope I will manage to stream too”.

The paradox is that this Fausti is strong enough to beat the GOAT in a bullet game, yet too young to stream it himself. Or, to be precise, to do it on his own channel. The most popular platform for content creators, YouTube, recently banned his channel because of his age (the minimum required is 13, or 16 in Europe). Fortunately for the fans, Fausti can still appear as a guest on ICC’s channel, where he has streamed his matches against Anish Giri, José Martínez, Nihal Sarin, Oleksandr Bortnyk, and José C. Ibarra, among others. He has even promised that he’ll start doing more commentary in English. “I don’t know if I could stream the whole thing in English, but yes, I’m eager to try. Maybe once in a while I won’t use the most accurate word, but if I see that I can have fun streaming in English, I’ll do it. I’m not afraid of trying new things; I like a challenge.” I can’t wait for the day his classes pay off and he becomes as witty and funny in English as he is in his native Spanish; the day that happens, trust me: he’ll become a global star.

One topic we sometimes talk about is the opponents he’d like to face in matches on ICC. At the top of his list are strong players who are also streamers, like Nakamura and Naroditsky, or his childhood hero, Pepe Cuenca. Oleksandr Bortnyk (already materialized) and Arjun Erigaisi were also among those he mentioned wanting to play. “It was great fun playing Anish. Yeah, I lost 3½–½, he played a bit better than me, but I think I didn’t play a bad match, and I enjoyed it a lot. I just want to have fun.”

And fun he is indeed having, as anyone around him can see. Happy birthday, Fausti! To many more years of chess and joy!