A three-year-old Iranian boy is stealing the spotlight at the ongoing World Cyber Games here.

Armin Golnam, in kindergarten, is the youngest participant in the tournament. He started to play only six months ago, said Mohammed Golnam, his father. The child, intrigued by the games, made it to Iran's national tournament this year, but lost all his matches.

While Armin is clearly facile at the keyboard, he is not considered a likely contender against the older competitors.

The media became enchanted by the boy after his participation in Iran's national tournament, prompting the organiser, Cyber Marketing, to fly him to Singapore for the world tournament.

"He is just a normal child, he is not special," The Straits Times quoted his 42-year-old father as saying.

Nearly 700 cyber gamers from 67 countries are competing for $435,000 in prize money in the tournament.