For much of his pre-teen years, the clock was the Argentinian prodigy’s fiercest rival. Every tournament, every move, every half-chance missed and every hard-fought win was a race against time to break the sport’s most coveted age record: becoming the youngest Grandmaster in chess history. For Faustino Oro, that record remained agonisingly out of reach, but he emerged with a consolation that is itself a slice of history on Sunday. At 12 years, 6 months and 26 days old, he became the second-youngest player ever to earn the Grandmaster title.

The historic moment arrived at the Sardinia World Chess Festival in Italy, where Oro officially clinched his third and final GM norm.…