An 11-year-old from Pakistan has beaten the top seed at an open-age international chess tournament and come home with a medal. Rayaan Rehman finished fifth at the 3rd CMC 1800 International Classical Chess Tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, held on 31 October and 1 November 2026, unbeaten across seven rounds in a field of 106 players from nine countries, most of them adults with years of rated chess behind them.
- Event: 3rd CMC 1800 International Classical Chess Tournament, Kuala Lumpur
- Field: 106 players from nine countries, open age, no age restrictions
- Result: 5th place, 5.5 points from 7 rounds, unbeaten, medal and cash prize
- Scalp: a win over the tournament’s No. 1 seed and highest-rated player
- Ratings: about 80 FIDE classical points gained; tournament performance rating 1863
Unbeaten Against the Grown-Ups
Classical chess is the game’s longest and most demanding format, and an under-1800 event still draws seasoned club and tournament players. Rayaan Rehman did not lose a single game. His 5.5 points from seven rounds left him tied on points with the players in third and fourth, with the final places settled only on tie-breaks, and his run included a victory over the tournament’s top seed, an accomplished Malaysian player who was the highest-rated entrant in the hall. The numbers under the result tell the same story: a tournament performance rating of 1863, far above what is expected of a player his age, and a calculated gain of about 80 FIDE classical rating points from one weekend’s work. For the organisers and the older players watching, it was the performance of the tournament.
Photo: Wilfredor, via Wikimedia Commons
Titles at Eight, Nine and Now Eleven
Kuala Lumpur was a step up, not a starting point. Rayaan is Pakistan’s National Under-10 Chess Champion for 2025, and his title history already runs ahead of his years: he became the youngest Pakistani to earn the Arena Candidate Master (ACM) title, at eight, and the youngest to earn the Arena FIDE Master (AFM) title, at nine. Earlier in 2026 he added the next rung, the Arena International Master (AIM) title. The Arena titles come from FIDE’s online arena system and are earned against rated opposition game after game; collecting three of them before secondary school is a record of consistency, not one lucky weekend.
A Calendar Full of Championships
His passport has been busy, too. His international appearances include the Asian Youth Chess Championship in Kazakhstan, the Asian Schools Chess Championship 2024 in Bangkok, where he was Pakistan’s best-performing player, and the Commonwealth Chess Championship 2025 in Malaysia. In 2026 he played the 28th Asian Youth Chess Championships in Shenzhen and the Asian Rapid and Blitz Championships in Hong Kong, where he drew with India’s Candidate Master Sahil Tickoo in the blitz event. Away from the board, the reports describe a regional spelling bee champion who took all As and A stars in his Grade 5 examinations. It is a lot of winning for an 11-year-old, and in Kuala Lumpur it was done against adults.
Rayaan Rehman’s Road From Here
Rayaan Rehman’s stated long-term goal is the biggest one in the game: to become Pakistan’s first chess Grandmaster, a title no Pakistani player has yet reached. Results like this weekend’s, unbeaten against a 106-player international field with a performance rating of 1863, are the raw material that goal is built from. He is part of a striking run of young Pakistani achievement this season, alongside the home success of the Asian Team Squash Championships in Islamabad, the examination records of Mahnoor Cheema, and the teenage world title won by Ahsan Ramzan in snooker. Pakistan’s chess federation now has a genuine prospect to nurture, and Kuala Lumpur suggests he is ahead of schedule.
Sources
- GSRRA: 11-Year-Old Rayaan Rehman Wins Medal for Pakistan After Unbeaten Run at International Chess Tournament in Malaysia
- ProPakistani: 11-Year-Old Wins Medal for Pakistan After Unbeaten Run in Malaysia, 2 November 2026
- Featured image: A chess board with pieces set for a classical game. Photo: Aaaatu, via Wikimedia Commons
- In-body image: A Staunton chess set in profile. Photo: Wilfredor, via Wikimedia Commons
Umar Farooq is the founder and editor of Good News Pakistan. An engineer by profession and a writer by passion, he started the site in December 2022 to share good news from Pakistan, and has since written and edited more than 200 articles about its people, sports, science, business and world records. He believes the story of Pakistan is bigger than its headlines, and that good news, told honestly, is worth telling every day.