11-Year-Old Evangelia Siskou Crowned a Chess World Champion

11-year-old Evangelia Siskou from Thessaloniki has been crowned chess world champion in the category for girls up to 13 at the World Championship held in Rhodes over the weekend.

She achieved 7.5 points in 9 matches (7 wins, 1 loss, and 1 draw), finishing ahead of 34 other young chess players and climbing to the top spot of the winner’s podium.

Siskou, who belongs to Thessaloniki’s AMO “Galaxia” club, confirmed her astonishing rise in the global chessboard.

In November 2022 she won bronze for girls up to 10 years old in the World Individual Championship. The Greek chess prodigy now ranks third in the world for her age group.

In an announcement, the Greek Chess Federation in congratulating the athlete said at the time: “The young athlete with her performance proves that the future of girls in our sport is optimistic and bright.”

As her parents told Thessaloniki’s Voria news site, the 11-year-old started playing chess when she was still in kindergarten, at the age of just four, and at the age of six, she started practicing with the club.

Her father pointed out that his daughter was obsessed with chess, and her skills improved significantly with constant practice.

Her parents try to make the tournament experiences as fun as possible for the young Greek who has made many friends from all over Greece, and abroad.

Greek chess champs are doing well internationally

In 2022, Greece proudly saw another win when 21-year-old Greek chess master Evgenios Ioannidis won the Masters event at “Serbia OPEN 2022” at the International Open Chess Championship, which was held in Novi Sad between June 28th to July 6th.

According to Chessdom magazine, the tournament attracted more than four hundred entries from forty-one countries with a sensational display by the young Greek who won the Masters event in a field of thirty-nine grandmasters and sixty-eight international masters. The Greek player scored an outstanding 8/9 points with performance of 2858 and clinched the winning prize of 7,500 euros, grandmaster norm, and 40.8 rating points.

Furthermore, in August 2022, Greece’s chess prodigy, Nikolas Theodorou, won the silver medal in the chess Olympiad that took place in India. Twenty-two-year-old Theodorou, who holds the title of Grand Master, came second in the Board 2 Open Section behind Nihal Sarin of India.

Chess has been developing rapidly in Greece in the last 25 years, especially among the younger generation.

Tens of thousands of people play or follow chess regularly in Greece. Major Greek newspapers have regular chess columns covering domestic and international chess news, while all major developments or successes of Greek chess receive nationwide coverage even on TV and in mass media.