Picture Credit: Twitter
In a major development, 12-year-old Indian origin boy Abhimanyu Mishra, became the youngest-ever Grandmaster in Chess on Wednesday. Abhimanyu, who hails from New Jersey, shattered the previous record of GM Sergey Karjakin, who had become a grandmaster in 2002 aged 12 years and 7 months.
Notably, Abhimanyu, who is 12 year , 4 months and 25 days, clinched his third GM norm in Budapest and had earlier already gone past the 2500 Elo rating barrier. He brought up this achievement at the Vezerkepzo GM Mix tournament in Budapest.
It is worth highlighting that on August 12, 2002, Karjakin had bagged the Grandmaster title when he was 12 years and 7 months. And now Mishra, born on 5 February 2009, bagged the highest title in chess by beating 15-year-old Indian GM Leon Luke Mendonca with the black piece. The same was confirmed in a statement by Chess.com.
Notably, Abhimanyu Mishra had earlier broken another record that of India’s R Praggnanandhaa to emerge as the youngest international master. While Mishra clinched the title aged 10 years, 9 months and 20 days in 2019, Praggnanandhaa was 10 years, 10 months and 19 days when he became the International Master.
Hope that he will go on to become one of the top chess players: Karjakin
Meanwhile, Karjakin, whose record was broken, said that he was a bit sad but hoped that Mishra goes on to become one of the top chess players in the world.
"Somehow I am quite philosophical about this because I felt like it has been almost 20 years and it is really too much! It had to be broken. Sooner or later I was sure that it would happen. I was completely sure that one of the Indian guys would do it much earlier. Somehow I was very lucky that it didn't happen," Karjakin was quoted as saying by Chess.com.
"Yes, I am a little sad that I lost the record, I don't want to lie, but at the same time I can only congratulate him and it's no problem. 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," he added.
