Abhimanyu Mishra is now the youngest Chess Grandmaster in the world. The New Jersey tween broke Sergei Karjakin's 19-year-old record with third criterion in Budapest on Wednesday, all in 12 years, 4 months and 25 days. Karjakin, who was world championship challenger for Magnus Carlsen in 2016, earned his GM title in 12 years, 7 months.
Abhimanyu and his father have been camping in Budapest since April this year for the post of GM. He earned two benchmarks in two months, and his final benchmark came with a victory with the black pieces over Indian GM Leon Mendonka in the Vezarkepzo GM Mix on Wednesday, his final tournament opportunity in the Hungarian capital, before he Used to travel to Sochi for FIDE. world Cup.
For a Grandmaster title, a player must score three GM criteria and touch an Elo rating of 2500 and above. Criteria can only be awarded in tournaments where at least 50% of the opponents are title holders, and at least one third of them are GMs.
Abhimanyu has made a habit of the distinction of being the youngest and currently holds the record for the youngest international master.
Soon after becoming the highest-rated under-9 player in the world, he was invited by the Kasparov Chess Foundation for a three-day rigorous assessment in November 2018. He was the youngest of the bunch of players who were called up, and was one of them. A handful of people selected for the Young Stars program. This provided an opportunity to interact with GM coaches, present their games and get feedback from Kasparov twice a year, in addition to individual training sessions.
Abhimanyu's father Hemant Mishra says, “At his age, having Gary mentor and take up his game is out of a dream for any chess player. "There was also a parenting interview, and that was probably the best day of my life." When Kasparov analyzed Abhimanyu's game, he was given special permission to be present in the room, paying close attention to the former world champion's every comment. Since last year, the pandemic forced the sessions to be moved online.
Even before his first words could murmur, Abhimanyu was introduced to chess pieces at the age of two and a half by his father through fascinating stories. Learning the game was fine, but it was a struggle to match the physical stamina of players at least five times older than myself, as a young boy in tournaments. With a pawn in the New Jersey Open in a winning position, 5.5-year-old Abhimanyu once found himself struggling to stay awake across the board after midnight. Hemant looks back and says, "His opponent clearly felt that a child could not walk for that long, so he just stopped and didn't make a move for an hour." "Abhimanyu wanted to end this kind of agony, so he offered a draw. His opponent turned it down and was like, 'Of course not, I'm going to win this!'
That defeat, Hemant says, "changed everything." It was meant to be the starting point of a father-son team of hacks, simulations and players throwing anything at it to survive in a brutal adult universe. The solution to managing sleep in late night games is for the young boy to develop the habit of taking naps between rounds in his car or in an empty room at the tournament venue.
In the following year's edition of the competition, playing against a 35-year-old chess coach, Abhimanyu took a bathroom break to splash his eyes with cold water and paced between steps to fight fatigue. They were locked in a dead draw rook-pawn endgame, and this time too, the game dragged on well before 2 pm. The 6.5-year-old physically moved towards breaking point.
Fortunately, his opponent overtook and lost. "I didn't win because I'm a better player, I won because you don't know endgames that well!" After the hard-won victory, Abhimanyu gave a befitting reply in a cheeky manner. Despite being a player belonging to a generation nurtured on computers, his heavy diet of chess books constituted his early learning tools. He had analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of "Sillman's Complete Endgame Course" by the age of 6.
In his pursuit of the IM norm two years ago, Abhimanyu put himself through a 10-day mock drill at home to wind up his body and sleep schedule for California time, three hours behind New Jersey. With his father, he went on preparations every night until 3 p.m., took walks outside his house to stay awake, and then flew to California on the opening day of the tournament. Hemant says, "I was quite sure that he would not be able to perform well. "The jet lag, as well as playing Black against the 2650 GM, seemed very difficult. After nearly six hours of play, Abhimanyu managed to draw. To me, it felt like a win because he managed to fight his The challenges of age."
Named after the young hero of Hindu mythology in tactical warfare who went to war to face certain death, Abhimanyu matches his age with the number of hours he spends daily at chess. He has the coaching backing in GM Arun Prasad and GM Magesh Chandran, and has spent the last year doubling down on intense training, the hungry months of competitions.
“So far I have been picking up the phone, but once he becomes the GM, he is free to choose what he wants to do in his life,” Hemant says. "Whether it is a tournament or he wants to continue playing chess. It will be his decision." Of course, the 12-year-old himself is dreaming of becoming a world chess champion one day.