Abhimanyu Mishra: 12-year-old becomes youngest grandmaster in chess history

CNN
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At just 12 years of age, Abhimanyu Mishra has become the youngest grandmaster in chess history.

Mishra, who is from New Jersey, US, broke Sergey Karjakin’s record of 12 years and seven months in Budapest, Hungary on Wednesday at the age of 12 years, four months and 25 days old.

To become a grandmaster in chess, a player must achieve three grandmaster norms – an award given for a high level of performance in a chess tournament – as well as achieving an 2500 Elo rating given out by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), the rankings that govern international chess competition.

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At the Vezerkepzo GM Mix tournament, Mishra defeated grandmaster Leon Mendonca in the thrilling ninth round to earn his third and final norm having earned his first two over the previous two months.

He had already topped the required 2500 Elo rating mark in June, paving the way for him to better the previous record – which had stood for 19 years – by approximately 66 days.

He posted a message of celebration on Twitter, saying: “Finally checkmated the biggest opponent (ongoing pandemic) which stopped me for 14 months. Thanks everybody for all your love and support. Looking forward for World cup.”

Breaking records is something Mishra has become accustomed to.

When he was just seven, he became the United States Chess Federation’s youngest Expert.

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He became the youngest National Master when he was nine, and then at 10 years, nine months and 20 days old, he became the youngest ever International Master.

The previous record was held by Russian grandmaster Karjakin in 2002. He went on to unsuccessfully challenge Magnus Carlsen in a 2016 World Championship match.