這中國小夥真聰明 （圖）

A 21-year-old Sydney pharmacy student has done what thousands of full-time chess players around Australia can only dream of by becoming the nation\'s third ever chess grandmaster, and he\'s done it in record time and at a record age.

Part-time chess player Zhao Zong Yuan - now the highest rated Australia player after the nation\'s first grandmaster, Ian Rogers, retired from competition in 2007 - managed to complete the requirements to become a grandmaster in two months - a process which normally several take years.

And achieving the top title in international chess at the age of 21 has never before been achieved in Australia.

It\'s extraordinary, said Jonathan Paxman, an Australian chess commentator and writer.

It\'s certainly the most impressive chess performance by an Australian in many, many years.

We haven\'t seen anything like Zhao in decades, Dr Paxman said.

Zhao achieved the prestigious title after defeating French player Gildas Goldsztein in a tournament at the 2008 Gibraltor Chess Festival earlier this week.

A lot of players take years to complete all of these performances (to become grandmaster) and he\'s done it in two months, it\'s incredibly impressive.

It was all the more impressive, Dr Paxman said, because the path to achieving grandmaster status was that much harder for Australians.

In Europe they have a lot of competitions to take in but in Australia you have to travel to Europe to do that, so it normally takes more time.

Zhao is now expected to take first board - equivalent to the captaincy - of the Australian team at the Chess Olympiad in Dresden, Germany, later this year, one of the most important chess tournaments in the world, said Dr Paxman.

That team has always been captained by Ian Rogers (who retired last year) so Zhao has come along at just the right time.

Zhao first broke into the international chess scene when he became Australia\'s youngest International Master at 14.

Australia\'s two other grandmasters, the retired Rogers, 47, and Darryl Johansen, 48, both achieved that status at the respective ages of 24 and 35