Luca Protopopescu | |
|---|---|
 Luca Protopopescu in 2025 | |
| Country | France |
| Born | March 27, 2016 |
| Title | Candidate Master (2025) |
| Peak rating | 2217 (May 2025) |
Luca Protopopescu (born 27 March 2016) is a French chess prodigy. Vice-U8 Europe champion in 2023, [1] [2] ranked number one in the world for under-8s, under-9s and then under-10s, [3] in April 2025, he became the youngest player in chess history to surpass the 2200 Elo point threshold at the age of 9 years and 5 days (notably after beating his former coach, international master Guillaume Philippe, at the Hyères tournament in February 2025, and winning the B tournament at the Cannes International Open), [4] beating the previous record set by England's Ethan Pang in 2024 at the age of 9 years and 103 days. [3]
He has been a member of the club Marseille-Échecs of the French Chess Federation since the age of 4, shortly after learning the rules of the game in March 2020 during the first Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. [5]
He was French champion in the under-8 age group in 2024, [6] [7] and he is the current under-10 French champion age group since May 2025. [8] [9]
Since September 2024, he has been coached at his club by Turkish grandmaster Mert Erdoğdu. [3]
At the beginning of March 2025, he created a surprise by winning the B tournament (reserved for players under 2200 Elo) at the Cannes International Open. [4] Since the end of March 2025, he has been sponsored by Turkish entrepreneur Evren Üçok, [3] co-founder of Trendyol.
