Francisco Vallejo Pons

Francisco Vallejo Pons (2013)
Full name	Francisco Vallejo Pons
Country	Spain
Born	21 August 1982 Es Castell, Minorca
Title	Grandmaster
Peak rating	2724 (July 2011)

Francisco Vallejo Pons (born 21 August 1982 in Es Castell, Minorca) is a chess Grandmaster from Spain. He was a chess prodigy, achieving the grandmaster title at the age of 16 years and 9 months, which makes him the 20th youngest player to ever become a grandmaster. He won the under-18 World Chess Youth Championship in 2000.

His fans often refer to him as Paco, a common nickname for Francisco in Spanish.

He won jubilee Ciudad de Leon Masters by beating Veselin Topalov 3½-2½.

In 2013 he tied for 1st-8th with Alexander Moiseenko, Evgeny Romanov, Alexander G Beliavsky, Constantin Lupulescu, Hrant Melkumyan, Sergei Movsesian, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alexey Dreev and Evgeny Alekseev in the European Individual Chess Championship.

Sample game

On 25 February 2006 he defeated FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov in 56 moves with the black pieces at the SuperGM Linares-Morelia chess tournament.

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 dxc4 7.e4 g5 8.Bg3 b5 9.Be2 Bb7 10.O-O Nbd7 11.Ne5 h5 12.Nxd7 Qxd7 13.Be5 Rh6 14.f3 Qe7 15.a4 a6 16.Qc2 Rd8 17.Rad1 Nd7 18.Bc7 Rc8 19.Bg3 e5 20.d5 b4 21.dxc6 Rhxc6 22.Nd5 Qe6 23.Qd2 h4 24.Bf2 c3 25.bxc3 bxc3 26.Qxg5 c2 27.Rc1 h3 28.g3 Qh6 29.Qf5 Qd2 30.Rfe1 Ba3 31.f4 Bxc1 32.Bh5 Rg6 33.Bxg6 Bxd5 34.exd5 Qxe1+ 35.Bxe1 Be3+ 36.Kf1 c1Q 37.Qxf7+ Kd8 38.Ke2 Bb6 39.Bd2 Qc4+ 40.Kf3 e4+ 41.Kg4 Kc7 42.a5 Bd4 43.Bf5 Rg8+ 44.Kh4 Rh8+ 45.Kg5 Qb5 46.Be6 e3 47.Be1 e2 48.g4 Rf8 49.Qh7 Be3 50.Kh4 Bxf4 51.g5 Qa4 52.Kh5 Bxh2 53.Bxh3 Be5 54.Qd3 Rh8+ 55.Kg6 Nf8+ 56.Kf7 Kd8 0-1

Retirement

After a painful loss in his penultimate round against Karjakin in the 2012 Bilbao finals, Vallejo announced his retirement from competitive chess.

Since then he has made multiple appearances in tournaments, for instance in 2014 Bilbao Chess Masters.

Results Timeline for Chess World Cup