TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
12-year-old American boy is now the youngest chess grandmaster
On June 30, the US Chess Federation announced that Mishra had secured the title at 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days old.
Change Size
Abhimanyu Mishra is now the youngest chess grandmaster at 12 years old.
(Facebook/abhimayumishrachess/Courtesy of Abhimayu Mishra)
Abhimanyu Mishra, a 12-year-old boy from New Jersey, the United States, has been declared the youngest grandmaster in chess history.
On June 30, the US Chess Federation announced that Mishra had secured the title at 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days old. Prior to this milestone, Mishra had earned the title of the youngest master in US history at 9 years and 2 months and the youngest International Master ever at 10 years, 9 months, and 3 days old.
before Mishra, Sergey Karjakin of Russia held the record for the world’s youngest chess grandmaster at age 12 years and 7 months, which was 19 years ago.
To be eligible for grandmaster status in chess, a player has to win three grandmaster norms, which are awards presented for a high rank of performance in a chess tournament. On top of that, the player must reach a 2,500 Elo rating issued by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), the rankings that preside over international chess tournaments.
Mishra defeated grandmaster Leon Mendonca at the Vezerkepzo GM Mix tournament to secure his third and final norm. Over the past two months, he earned his first two norms, then exceeded the required 2,500 Elo rating mark in June.
Mishra posted a celebratory tweet, saying: "Finally checkmated the biggest opponent (ongoing pandemic) which stopped me for 14 months. Thanks everybody for all your love and support. Looking forward [to the] World cup."
Karjakin, had kind words for Mishra, telling chess.com: “I am quite philosophical about this because it has been almost 20 years. It had to be broken sooner or later. I was sure one of the Indian guys would do it much earlier, and I was lucky that it didn’t happen.
“I am a little sad that I lost the record, but at the same time, I can only congratulate him and it’s no problem. I hope that he will go on to be one of the top chess players and that it will be a nice start to his big career.”
