Abhimanyu Mishra, a 12-year-old from New Jersey, has become the world’s youngest chess grandmaster.
Mishra, who is exactly 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days old, broke Sergey Karjakin’s 19-year-old record in Budapest on Wednesday — achieving the required three norms to earn the title.
Karjakin — a world championship challenger to Magnus Carlsen in 2016 — earned his grandmaster title at 12 years, 7 months, just falling short of Mishra’s new record.
For those unfamiliar with the game — or for those who did not binge The Queen’s Gambit last year — in order to become a grandmaster, a chess player must achieve three grandmaster norms, which are awarded for high-level performance during a tournament.
Players must also achieve a 2500 Elo rating, which is given to players by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), an organization that oversees international chess competitions.
Talking to chess and sports reporter Kaja Snare, Mishra said he was “feeling unreal” after his big win, adding that he and his father have been in Budapest for two months hoping to earn the title.
“It felt amazing to finally break it,” he said, adding that Covid-19 posed some difficulties amid his journey to the top, as he was forced to miss several games.
“In that time I was able to practice more,” he added. “And that helped a lot.”
Mishra also
“When he started playing, we always made it a point to set intermediate targets,” Mishra’s father Hemant told ESPN prior to the win. “He broke the youngest National Expert record by six months, and then he took down the [International Master] record too. In the long run, these records may not mean anything but the belief he’ll draw from chasing down these goals will stay with him for life.”
Watch Mishra’s interview above, via YouTube.