Chess prodigy
From Free net encyclopedia
Chess prodigies are children who play chess so well that they are able to beat Masters and even Grandmasters, often at a very young age. Chess is one of the few sports where children can compete with adults on equal ground; it is thus one of the few skills in which true child prodigies exist. The chess world always looks with big expectations to these prodigies. Some of them have become World Champions; others have failed to make progress in their adulthood.
Recently, there has been a tendency for chess players to gain the International Grandmaster title earlier and earlier in their lives. The reason for this is the development of chess on the Internet, which gives children unlimited opportunities to play against top level opponents. Another is that more young children compete in national and international chess tournaments.
In 2002, twelve-year-old Ukrainian Sergey Karjakin became the youngest Grandmaster ever. He is the latest of a long line of chess prodigies that have been awarded this title.
List of youngest grandmasters
This is a list of the youngest players to become Grandmasters. The age listed is the age on which they received their third and final Grandmaster norm. This is not equal to the age at which they officially became Grandmasters, because GM titles can only be awarded at FIDE congresses.
- Sergey Karjakin (UKR) 12 years, 7 months, 0 days
- Magnus Carlsen (NOR) 13 years, 3 months, 27 days
- Bu Xiangzhi (CHN) 13 years, 10 months, 13 days
- Teimour Radjabov (AZE) 14 years, 0 months, 14 days
- Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR) 14 years, 0 months, 17 days
- Etienne Bacrot (FRA) 14 years, 2 months, 0 days
- Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) 14 years, 4 months [1]
- Péter Lékó (HUN) 14 years, 4 months, 22 days
- Yuriy Kuzubov (UKR) 14 years, 7 months, 12 days [2]
- Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (VIE) 14 years, 10 months
- Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 15 years, 2 months, 19 days
- Pentala Harikrishna (IND) 15 years, 3 months, 5 days
- Koneru Humpy (IND) 15 years, 4 months, 28 days
- Judit Polgar (HUN) 15 years, 4 months, 28 days
- Alejandro Ramirez (CRC) 15 years, 5 months, 14 days
- Bobby Fischer (USA) 15 years, 6 months, 1 day
- Francisco Vallejo Pons (ESP) 16 years, 9 months, 0 days
- Garry Kasparov (RUS) 16 years, 11 months, 29 days
List of chess prodigies
In alphabetical order:
- Michael Adams became an International Master at 15 and a grandmaster at 17
- Viswanathan Anand became India's first International Grandmaster at 18 and went on to become the FIDE World Chess Champion
- Etienne Bacrot
- Mark Bluvshtein became an International Master at 13 and a grandmaster at 16
- José Raúl Capablanca, 1888-1942, learned chess at the age of four, beat his country's chess champion in a match when he was 12, and eventually became world champion
- Magnus Carlsen became the world's youngest GM in April 2004 (the second youngest in the history of the game)
- Anya Corke
- Bobby Fischer became US Champion at the age of 14 and went on to become world champion
- Kateryna Lahno
- Pentala Harikrishna became a grandmaster at 15
- Koneru Humpy is said to be the youngest female Grandmaster ever, but this is debated
- Gata Kamsky had an Elo rating of 2650 at the age of 16
- Sergey Karjakin, became the youngest grandmaster ever at the age of 12 years and 7 months, and was the official second (helper) of fellow Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov, during the 2002 FIDE World championship
- Anatoly Karpov became a grandmaster at 18 and went on to become world champion
- Garry Kasparov became a grandmaster at 17 and went on to become the youngest ever world champion
- Joel Lautier
- Péter Lékó was once the world's youngest ever Grandmaster
- Luke McShane won the World Under-10 Championship at the age of eight
- Paul Morphy, 1837-1884, beat Johann Löwenthal 3-0 at age 12
- Hikaru Nakamura became a GM at 15 and US chess champion at 16
- Gastón Needleman
- Parimarjan Negi, the youngest International Master in 2005
- Judit Polgar
- Ruslan Ponomariov, the FIDE World Champion during 2002–2004
- Teimour Radjabov, became the youngest GM at the age of 14 years, until Karjakin broke his record
- Samuel Reshevsky, learned the rules at the age of 4, and gave simultaneous exhibitions at the age of six
- Nigel Short finished joint-first in the British Championship at the age of 14
- Boris Spassky became an International Grandmaster at 18 and went on to become world champion
- Aston Taminsyah won world school chess U-8 Championship at 7+
- Murugan Thiruchelvam
- Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son was world champion under ten in 2000
- Josh Waitzkin
- Peter Winston
See also: list of chess players, list of chess world championship matches.