CHENNAI: Chess prodigy Abhimanyu Mishra, who is an American citizen of Indian origin, has become the youngest Grandmaster (GM) in the world at the age of 12 years, 4 months and 25 days. He has broken the record of Sergey Karjakin, which stood for 19 years after the Russian achieved the honour at 12 years and 7 months in 2002. Abhimanyu achieved his third and final GM norm after beating Indian GM Leon Luke Mendonca in the penultimate round of the Vezerkepzo GM Mix event in Budapest, Hungary, on Wednesday.
Abhimanyu, whose parents migrated to the United States from Madhya Pradesh more than a decade ago, needed to achieve three GM norms and an ELO rating of 2500 by September 5 and he has managed to do so successfully. He had achieved two norms in quick succession in early May, but the quest for the third was proving to be difficult.
Abhimanyu is also the youngest International Master (IM) in the world, having attained the title in November 2019 at the age of 10 years, 9 months and 20 days. At the time, Abhimanyu’s parents were relaxed in the knowledge that their son had close to two years at his disposal to become the youngest GM. But the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent cancellation of over-the-board tournaments across the world hampered Abhimanyu’s plans.
It was only in April this year that Abhimanyu and his father travelled to Hungary – where over-the-board tournaments had begun in full swing – from New Jersey in an effort to break the youngest GM record. After almost three months of non-stop chess for Abhimanyu in Europe, the new record holder can perhaps finally take a breather.