Youngest Chess Grandmaster In The World

If you were a professional chess player then you would know that several rankings can be achieved by chess players starting from National Master(NM), International Master(IM), Grand Master(GM), and many more. Each of these titles will have specific criteria that must be met to be entitled to it.

For you to be able to achieve a GM title then you will first have to go through all these rankings climbing your way to the top. All these titles are under the conditions that have been set by the International Chess Federation(FIDE) which is the body responsible for handling the ratings of chess players worldwide.

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To become a GM one must at least get a rating of 2500 together with other requirements that must be met. Therefore getting a GM title at such a young age is no easy task since the players have to join many competitions and win most of them in the end.

It is definitely not impossible as it has been proven before by most of the star players that are in the top ranking as of now. But one kid named Abhimanyu Mishra has become the youngest player in the world to ever achieve the GM title at only 12 years old 4 months and 25 days to be exact.

An Outstanding Performance

This incredible chess player from India and now currently staying in New Jersey, United States is the youngest GM player in history after getting his third GM norm in Budapest. He has since passed many hurdles to pass the 2500 rating and finally has achieved it after going through so much.

With this achievement, Mishra has broken the previous record-holder GM Rusia Sergey who has held it for 19 years as he achieved it on 12 August 2002 when he was 12 years and 7 months.

Mishra has passed his third and final GM norms to get his GM title after successfully beating the Indian GM, Leon Luke Mendonca in the final second round of the Vezerkepzo GM Mix competition in Budapest, Hungary.

With the current global pandemic that has hit us, most competitions are now being withheld or postponed. This is something hard for Mishra as he and his father had to stay in Hungary for many months to get into as many tournaments as he can to make his ambition a reality.

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He was after the GM title by participating in several championships in Hungary since April. For that, he and his father rented a house there to make sure that Mishra is constantly focused on enhancing his skills by practicing each day.

Mishra had obtained his second GM in the Vezerkepzo Championship in April followed by the First Saturday Championship in May. The Verkepzo Championship in June will be Mishra's last chance before leaving Hungary.

The Chess Prodigy

Both Abhimanyu Mishra's parents were from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh before migrating to the United States of America in 2006. They have all worked actively with Mishra as a team to fulfill their son's dream. It was since the beginning of time that they realized Mishra's potential as a chess prodigy.

This amazing kid is a part of the Kasparov Chess Foundation and won the ChessKid Online National Invitation Championship(CONIC) for the category of under 8 in 2016. He was found to be the perfect chess prodigy when he managed to get the youngest National Expert in just 6 months of his chess career.

He holds the youngest American National Master at the age of 9 years 2 months and 17 days. At the end of 2019, he breaks the record of R Praggnanandhaa from India to become the youngest International Master in the world at the age of 10 years 9 months, and 3 days.

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The Sacrifice Of His Parents To Realize His Dream

Along with his career, he did not have any corporate sponsorship to aid in his mission to become the best chess player in the world. But due to the dedication of his father, he managed to get far in his dreams.

Hemant had started to collect funds to fulfill his son's dreams and his whole family's. In fact, things worked out quite well for them as the GoFundMe page has helped them in supporting Mishra to become the next youngest GM player in the world. They managed to collect $16,183 from the fund and still increasing.

Things were not all that smooth for Mishra as he was not able to participate in many championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic which hindered his timing in obtaining the title. Nevertheless, his hard work definitely paid off and if not for COVID-19, he would have gotten the GM title much earlier.

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