12-year-old chess prodigy Abhimanyu Mishra has made history, breaking an almost two-decade long record to become the world’s youngest ever Grandmaster.
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.
Mishra defeated grandmaster Leon Mendonca in the thrilling ninth round at the Vezerkepzo GM Mix tournament to earn his third and final norm having earned his first two over the previous two months.
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.”
Mishra’s mother told The New York Post that they were thrilled with his achievement.
“We are over the moon that our kid is the youngest Grandmaster ever. We are elated,” mom Swati said.
“It was a do-or-die situation in this game to get the title,’ she said, adding: ‘We are so proud of him. All his hard work has paid off.
“I can’t even describe the feeling. He wanted to be the youngest Grandmaster in the world and now he is.”
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