16-year-old Ivan Travis Cu dominates blitz section of Eastern Youth Championships

Filipino chess prodigy Ivan Travis Cu is making strides toward achieving Grandmaster status at age 16.

Cu dominated the blitz section of the Under-18 event in the 9th Eastern Youth Championships in Zhuhai, China on Monday with an unbeaten record and eight victories.

He secured his victory by defeating Mongolian player Chuluuntuul Erkhembayar in the final round and drawing one match.

This performance follows Cu's previous achievement of finishing second in last year's International Master Closed tilt in Hanoi, Vietnam after narrowly missing out on a title win.

Cu also competed in the standard event earlier but finished fourth, while his countryman FM Christian Gian Karlo Arca secured third place by tiebreaks.