While most teens his age are scrolling on their phone, Beto Gaitan is analyzing professional chess games and studying openings. 

Alberto Gaitan, most known as Beto to his friends, has demonstrated extraordinary talent at chess. Beto Gaitan, now a student at Cotter, has become one of the most skilled chess players among teens in Mexico. He placed 2nd in a u17 national chess tournament in Mexico City  in 2022.

This was not easy, Beto had to practice consistently for years before he got any results. His dedication to the game of chess is something people would envy. 

At the age of seven,  Beto’s father, also named Alberto Gaitan, introduced him to chess. Beto hasn’t stopped improving since that movement.

Beto didn’t stop playing with several matches a day with his dad until he beat him. For Beto his first win was not just a simple victory, it rather marked the beginning of a chess career full of unforgettable moments and achievements.

As Beto grew older, his chess skills started to sharpen exponentially. According to Clarissa Wong, kids improve at a much faster rate at chess than adults due to the increased neuroplasticity in their brains. In fact, she says chess is “one of the best neuroplasticity exercises.”

Another reason why children get better faster than adults is because they can unlearn and learn patterns easily, while adults use the same patterns for longer. This is better to learn new chess techniques to improve their game.

As Beto became better and better, he began his serious chess learning. He entered the chess club in his school and became the best in the club. His chess teacher, Mr. Omar was amazed about his progress and focused on teaching Beto the most advanced techniques for kids his age.

“I used to review my games and look at my mistakes and how to get better,” Beto said. He was not only in chess classes, he began watching chess content on Youtube to learn from the best chess players in the entire world. Beto became so good he beat Mr. Omar several times.

At this point, Beto was consuming chess as if it was breakfast, lunch and dinner. He became interested in various chess content creators. His go-to chess youtubers were Grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky and International Master Levy Rozman,  known as Gotham Chess.  He was also a great fan of Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, both considered the best chess players in the world right now. Beto often analyses their games to grasp new techniques and playstyles. He also loves to solve chess puzzles in his spare time.

Like every chess enthusiast, Beto has particular tactics which he has mastered and relies on most of the time. Beto’s favorite opening with white is the Ruy Lopez, also known as the Spanish opening, because it was the first opening he learned. Additionally, the Ruy Lopez  allows solid development, flexible structure, and potential for both positional patient play and aggressive tactical attacks.

When Beto gets the black pieces, he usually opts for the King’s Indian Defense. He says he loves this defense because it is available every time, and it can be pretty aggressive by developing an attack through the king’s side. The King’s Indian Defense is harder to learn but is very solid once mastered.

Beto’s favorite chess platform, which is also the most popular one, is chess.com. Chess.com provides countless ways to play and learn chess. It allows you to play games online at any time of the day with people around the world. It allows you to control the duration of the games, and there are even different game modes of chess. It has endless puzzles, lessons, courses, statistics, game review, live games, bots to play with, and even online tournaments which sometimes deliver cash prizes. You can even add your friends and play chess with them at any time from anywhere.

Beto Elo (chess rating) has always been impressive. According to polls in chess.com a respectable and even impressive elo for his age is 1300, Beto is currently around the 1700s which is jaw dropping for many individuals.

When it comes to chess tournaments, Beto is more than experienced. He has gone to several tournaments in Torreon and won most of them at his age age group, he became so good that he needed to enter chess tournaments of older age groups and even adults. 

Betos’ greatest chess experience was his appearance in a national tournament in Mexico City. He played lots of games in the span of 3 days and got a chance to play in the final for his age group, which was under 17. Beto was good, but the kids at this level were immaculate. The kid who Beto played against in the final made no mistakes and it was hard for Beto to punish him. He ended up losing the final and ranked 2nd in the tournament. Although Beto didn’t win, he had a great performance and he was very proud of himself.

Beto had learned several lessons in his chess career. The most important lesson that Beto has learned is to never give up. Beto says, “you are not going to improve in one day, it takes time.” Beto has faced hundreds of tough opponents, and when he lost, he never backed down, he treated every loss as a lesson to become better. “One day, you can lose, the next one you can also lose, sometimes you will lose a lot, but one day you are going to win,” Beto said. Beto also said that one of the most common mistakes made by inexperienced players is playing nonesensely at the midgame, young players need to learn to become patient in order to minimize mistakes in the midgame.

If Beto was a chess piece he says he would be the rook. The rook is an inactive and very passive foremost of the game, but at the endgame it is a crucial piece that often determine

s a win or loss. Beto loves rooks and the way he can coordinate them together to keep his position strong and make striking attacks.

Aside from Beto, there are also other students that are chess enthusiasts. Kaiden Diaczun and Ezra Burros enjoy playing chess in their free time and have reached a decent level. One tip Ezra gives is that you should not expect your opponents to make a mistake, “you should always assume that your opponent is going to do the best move.” Both of these players love knights, it’s their favorite piece because it moves in the most unique patterns and you can get creative by moving it in unpredictable ways. Although not as good as Beto, these players also have enviable skills. They both say that the best way to improve at chess is to keep playing as much as you can, especially with tough competition to learn from them. 

Chess is a great game, not only to have fun, but it’s an incredible way to exercise your brain and have new experiences.