Last year I wrote that Corus 2006 would be an acid test and a great opportunity for the young Ukrainian prodigy. One year later no one would argue that the youngest ever to achieve the highest title, had maximized his opportunity and ‘passed the test’ with flying colors. A most incredible debut with 7/13 and a tie for 5-6 places was just the start to another great chess year. Other highlights were a very good unshared third place at the NH generations’ tourney, his phenomenal 8.5/11 result at the Olympiad, and making it all the way to the finals at the Cup D’Agde rapids.

Even some setbacks such as his crush-and-burn 3.5/9 at the Cuernavaca Young Masters and a 4.5/11 disappointment on home soil in Aerosvit, couldn’t spoil Sergey’s consistent rating climb - Indeed, he is another player with a Google-like rating progress graph. Young Karjakin is just a hair length away from the ever-desired 2700 landmark number.

In what seems to now be a new tradition, Sergey will celebrate his birthday (17th) on the day before round 1. No, he didn’t become a world champ by age 16 as he once hoped, but no one can complain about this meteoric rise.