HomeSports12-year-old Indian American Abhimanyu Mishra Becomes Youngest Grandmaster in Chess History

12-year-old Indian American Abhimanyu Mishra Becomes Youngest Grandmaster in Chess History

12-year-old Indian American Abhimanyu Mishra Becomes Youngest Grandmaster in Chess History

Abhimanyu Mishra. (new.uschess.org photo)

India-West Staff Reporter

Young Abhimanyu Mishra of New Jersey June 30 became the youngest chess grandmaster in history.

The 12-year-old Indian American player scored his third GM norm in Budapest, having already crossed the required 2500 Elo rating barrier. “On Wednesday, Mishra won the biggest game of his short but sweet career so far. He defeated the 15-year-old Indian GM Leon Luke Mendonca with the black pieces, securing a performance rating higher than 2600 over nine rounds,” stated an official release on Chess.com.

Mishra broke GM Sergey Karjakin’s record that was standing for 19 years. On Aug. 12, 2002, Karjakin, a world championship challenger in 2016, secured the grandmaster title at the age of 12 years and seven months.

“I hope that he will go on to become one of the top chess players and it will be just a nice start to his big career. I wish him all the best,” added Karjakin in the report.

Mishra’s coach, GM Arun Prasad, had this to say to Chess.com: “My congratulations to Abhi for this great achievement. He fully deserves this success, as I have seen all of his hard work firsthand. His father also deserves applause for all of the sacrifices he has made for Abhi to reach this milestone. Personally, this is a big moment to see my student become a GM!”

Mishra, born on Feb. 5, 2009, took 12 years, four months, and 25 days to obtain the highest title in chess.

Mishra, whose father Hemant Mishra introduced him to chess, spent several months in Budapest, Hungary, playing back-to-back tournaments, chasing the title and the record. He scored both his first and second GM norms there, at the April Vezerkepzo tournament and the May 2021 First Saturday tournament, both round-robins of 10 players specially set up for scoring norms.

However, in his final attempt this month, he succeeded. As several chess players stayed in Budapest for this long period, the organizers created one last event, this time a Swiss group called the Vezerkepzo GM Mix. Having been invited to the FIDE World Cup in Sochi, Mishra knew this was going to be his last chance before leaving Hungary.

(With ANI reports)

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