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Chess prodigies and mini-grandmasters
10.01.2006 – Our recent report on 12-year-old Parimarjan Negi achieving a GM norm brought the realisation that our records on the youngest grandmasters in history – contained on a page that is copied and quoted all over the web – are hopelessly outdated. For this reason we present a new list of child prodigies and record-breaking grandmasters.

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Chess Prodigies and Mini-Grandmasters

By Frederic Friedel

Child prodigies are a well-known phenomenon in chess, which is one of the few sports or intellectual activities where children can compete with adults on equal ground (another is computer games). The great Capablanca learned the game at four, and was one of the strongest players in Cuba in his early teens. Samuel Reshevsky also started at four and was giving simultaneous exhibitions at six.

Four-year-old Capablanca playing against his
father, soon after learning the moves in 1892

Sammy Reshevsky playing Charles Jaffe at 11. He tied for third with
Janowski, Bigelow and Bernstein.

Youngest Grandmasters

In recent times we have seen the record for youngest grandmaster in the history of the game topple repeatedly. In 1991 Judit Polgar, a female at that, broke Bobby Fischer's 33-year-old mark by becoming a grandmaster a month earlier than he had done. In 1994 her record was broken by fellow-Hungarian Peter Leko, who a short time later was overtaken by Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov. The latter went on to become FIDE world champion.

In 1999 the Chinese player Bu Xiangzhi completed his final GM norm at 13 years and four months, but the circumstances were unclear and FIDE never fully recognised this record. In 2001 14-year-old prodigy Teimour Radjabov, who hails from the same town as Garry Kasparov (Baku), became the second-youngest grandmaster in history.

Sergey Karjakin, grandmaster at the age of twelve

But all these records were shattered on August 20, 2002, when Sergey Karjakin (pronounced car-yack-kin) of the Ukraine fulfilled his final grandmaster norm at the age of 12 years and seven months. He did so at the international chess tournament in Sudak, a town on the Crimea Peninsula. His FIDE rating at the time was 2523.

In 2002 Sergey was also one of the seconds of world champion Ruslan Ponomariov. This was another record he achieved before he had reached his teens. Today (January 2006) at 15 Sergey is a top grandmaster, ranked 42 in the world, with a 2660 rating that is climbing rapidly. Although we must be cautious with such statements one must assume that his records will not be broken.

One extraordinary chess prodigy came close. In 2004 Magnus Carlsen of Norway completed his GM norms, eight months later than Karjakin had done. Carlsen is playing shockingly strong chess: in December 2005 he won tenth place in the FIDE World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk and qualifyied for the Candidates tournament of the next world championship cycle. Magnus' overall performance at the World Cup was equivalent to Elo 2713.
  

Norwegian chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen

Below we have compiled a list of the youngest grandmasters in history. In the future we may be updating this list, as new GMs under 15 years of age emerge.

Youngest grandmasters in history

No.	Player	Nat.	years	months	days	year
1	Sergey Karjakin	UKR	12	7	0	2002
2	Parimarjan Negi	IND	13	3	22	2006
3	Magnus Carlsen	NOR	13	3	27	2004
4	Bu Xiangzhi	CHN	13	10	13	1999
5	Teimour Radjabov	AZE	14	0	14	2001
6	Ruslan Ponomaryov	UKR	14	0	17	1997
7	Wesley So	PHI	14	1	28	2007
8	Etienne Bacrot	FRA	14	2	0	1997
9	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	FRA	14	4	0	2005
10	Peter Leko	HUN	14	4	22	1994
11	Hou Yifan	CHN	14	6	2	2008
12	Anish Giri	RUS	14	7	2	2009
13	Yuri Kuzubov	UKR	14	7	12	2004
14	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	VIE	14	10	0	2004
15	Fabiano Caruana	ITA	14	11	20	2007
16	Koneru Humpy	IND	15	1	27	2002
17	Hikaru Nakamura	USA	15	2	19	2003
18	Pentala Harikrishna	IND	15	3	5	2001
19	Judit Polgar	HUN	15	4	28	1991
20	Alejandro Ramirez	CRI	15	5	14	2003
21	Bobby Fischer	USA	15	6	1	1958

Other famous chess prodigies and records

• Paul Morphy, 1837-1884, beat Johann Löwenthal 3-0 at age 12.

• José Raúl Capablanca, 1888-1942, learned chess at the age of four, beat his country's chess champion in a match when he was 13, and eventually became world champion (see above).

• Samuel Reshevsky, learned the rules at the age of 4, and gave simultaneous exhibitions at the age of six (see above).

• Arturo Pomar played in the Spanish Championship at age 10 and became a master at age 13. He drew Alekhine in Gijon in 1944 at the age of 13.

• Boris Spassky became an International Grandmaster at 18 and went on to become world champion.

• Bobby Fischer became US Champion at the age of 14 and a world championship candidate at 15. He went on to become world champion.

• Henrique Mecking of Brazil learned the game at 6, gave some simultaneous displays at 9, won the Brazilian championship at 13, and South American Zonal at 14, and became an IM at 15. He won two Interzonal Tournaments in a row, at 21 and 24.

• 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 (at 22).

• Nigel Short finished joint first in the British Championship at the age of 14.

• Viswanathan Anand became India's first International Grandmaster at 18 and went on to become the FIDE knockout world champion.

• Michael Adams became an International Master at 15 and a grandmaster at 17.

• Pentala Harikrishna became India's youngest grandmaster at 15.

• Gata Kamsky had an Elo rating of 2650 at the age of 16.

• Luke McShane won the World Under-10 Championship at the age of eight.

• Ruslan Ponomariov became the youngest ever FIDE knockout world champion at the age of 18.

• Alejandro Ramirez became a grandmaster at 15, a month earlier than Fischer. He is the first grandmaster ever in Central America.

• Magnus Carlsen became the second-youngest grandmaster in history at 13, and broke Fischer's record by becoming a world championship candidate at 15 years and one month.

• As of this writing (January 2006) Parimarjan Negi has achieved five IM norms and one GM norm. He is twelve years old.

• Mona Khaled achieved the WIM title and two WGM norms in 2005, when she was eleven years old. At the same time she won both the Arabian and the African Girls Junior Championship in the under 20 group in 2005, although she was the youngest player in both tournments.

• In July 2006 Parimarjan Negi of India completed his final GM norm to become the second-youngest grandmaster in the history of the game.

• In January 2007 David Howell became the youngest grandmaster in UK history, at sixteen years and one month, breaking Luke McShane's previous record set in 2000 by six months.

• On December 7th 2007 Wesley So of the Philippines made his final grandmaster norm at the age of 14 years, one month and 28 days to become the seventh youngest GM in history.

• In 2008 Hou Yifan, born February 27, 1994, in Xinghua, China, became the youngest ever female in history (at the age of 14 years 6 months 2 days) to qualify for the title of grandmaster.

• At the Wijk aan Zee tournament on January 30, 2009 the Russian/Nepalese/Dutch player Anish Giri, born on June 28, 1994, completed his third and final GM norm, at the age of 14 years, 7 months and 2 days.