“It is an achievement that truly fills me with pride, since I have been competing in this sport for 15 years, and it is a title that every high-level competitor aspires to reach someday. That is why I thank everyone who has supported me in getting this far: my family, my friends, and the University of Cauca for their support in recent years. This achievement is a motivation to continue moving forward in this sport.”

This is what Civil Engineering student Carlos Andrés Tobar Beltrán states, who obtained the FIDE Master (FM) title (absolute), granted by the International Chess Federation to players with the highest performance. It is the third most important title in the hierarchy, followed by International Master (IM) and Grandmaster (GM).

This title is awarded after meeting two requirements: achieving a score of 6 out of 9 in an ITT Subzonal Tournament, which he had already achieved in 2021, and obtaining an ELO FIDE rating of 2100, the global score used by FIDE to measure a player’s level. This rating is earned by playing federated tournaments, and he reached it in the ITT Open Pereira Tournament, which he played last week.

In this way, he becomes the first FIDE Master in the city of Popayán and the second in the Cauca region. In 2021, he obtained the first norm (the most important one), the diploma with the title of Provisional FIDE Master, but to make it official he had to complete the second norm. Cauca now has two Absolute FIDE Masters (Carlos Andrés Tobar Beltrán from Popayán and Edwin Navia from Santander de Quilichao) and one FIDE Woman Master (Lina Sofía Cardona Martínez from Popayán, though she belongs to the Caldas League).

It is worth remembering that Carlos Andrés represented Unicauca in May and was the Champion (Gold Medal) in Classical Chess at the 2024 Western Regional University Games, qualifying for the National Final of the University Games, which will take place in September.