Parimarjan Negi, one of the well-known prodigies, at the age of 13 years, 4 months, and 22 days became the youngest Indian to earn the Grandmaster title. He broke the previous record of Pentala Harikrishna (GM at 15), who broke Viswanathan Anand's (GM at 18). And he is also the second youngest Grandmaster ever (second only to Sergey Karjakin, who achieved this feat at the age of 12 years and 7 months, however, holds the World's Youngest GM title), beat Magnus Carlsen record by becoming the second-youngest person in history to complete all the requirements for the grandmaster title by a five-day margin. In a mere six months span, he made three GM norms. The first one in Hastings, January 2006; the second just a couple of weeks later in the same month at the Parsvnath International Open in his hometown, Delhi; and the final norm in July the same year at the Chelyabinsk Region Superfinal Championship at Satka in Russia. And as per January 2010, he is at his rating peak, 2621.
Personal life
Born on 9 February 1993, in Uttaranchal. At a very early age, the family shifted its base to Delhi. His father is an Air Traffic Controller while his mom is an executive in Life Insurance Corporation of India. Parimarjan Negi started learning chess before he was 5 years of age when his father's friend taught him the basics of chess. Parimarjan is a student at the Amity International School (Saket) in Delhi. He is one of the toppers in his class and in spite of his long absences, he passes his exams with excellent results and is able to strike a balance between chess and studies.
Achievements
In 2002, Negi registered his maiden international success, when he won the Asian championship at Tehran and Commonwealth Championship 2003, both in the under-10 category. He awarded as "Best Sub Junior Award" in 37th Biel International Chess Festival 2004. In July 2005, he scored his third and final IM norm at the international Open in Sort, Spain, which made him the world's youngest International Master in chess. While in 2006, he made his biggest achievement by becoming a second-youngest Grandmaster in the world. Joint champion in the ‘World Youth Stars’ tournament held at Kirishi, Russia and ranked fourth in Corus Grandmaster group ‘C’ tournament in Netherlands in 2007. In January 2008 he got second position in Corus Chess Tournament “Grandmaster Group C”. In the same year, Negi marked his improvement with joint first place at the Kaupthing Open in Luxembourg and clear first at the Philadelphia Open. He was runner-up behind Abhijeet Gupta in the World Junior Championship 2008 in Turkey with 9.5/13. In year 2009, he won the Malaysian Open Chess Championship Malaysia and Politiken Cup in Copenhegan, Denmark. He was qualified for the 2009 World Cup in Khanty Mansisyk, Russia from “Asian Continental Chess Championship 2009” but knocked out at round 1 by Swiss Vadim Milov 1½-3½. In the recent Asian Team Chess Championship which held in Kolkata, India, December 2009, he got the best 4th board prize while his team won the tournament. And now Parimarjan is struggling in Corus Group B and is at 6th placed with 5,5/10 from 13 games will be played.
Another chess prodigy (Part 6): Parimarjan Negi
Another chess prodigy (Part 5): Wesley So
Wesley So is a Filipino chess grandmaster. He achieved the GM title at the age of 14 years, 1 month and 28 days, making him the 7th youngest person to achieve the Grandmaster title in the history of chess.
Wesley So was born in Bacoor, Cavite on October 9, 1993. He was aged 6 when his father taught him to play chess and was 9 when he started to compete in junior active chess tournaments. In 2006, Wesley So became the youngest member of the national men's team to participate at the 37th Chess Olympiad in Turin, Italy at the age of 12. In December of the same year, he also became the youngest National Open Chess Champion. In May 2007, he went on to become the youngest National Junior Open Chess Champion. Wesley won the gold medal on board one at the 2007 World Under 16 Team Championship with a score of 9½/10. He achieved his third and final Grandmaster norm on December 8, 2007 at the third Pichay Cup International Open (Manila, Philippines), thus becoming the youngest Filipino Grandmaster at the age of 14. He also became the seventh youngest to achieve the Grandmaster title in the history of chess, edging out French GM Etienne Bacrot from that spot by a few days. So got his first GM norm in the Offene Internationale Bayerische Schach Meisterschaft in Bad Wiessee, Germany and his second GM norm in the 2007 U-20 World Junior Chess Championship in Yerevan, Armenia. Since December 2007, Wesley So has been considered to be the world's youngest Grandmaster at the age of fourteen. On the January 2009 FIDE rating list, GM So's ELO rating is 2627 making him the highest ranked chess player in the Philippines ahead of other notable Filipino Grandmasters such as Mark Paragua, Rogelio Antonio, Jr. and Eugenio Torre (who is second with 2560 ELO rating). The latest ratings put Wesley So on the 9th spot of the world top 20 juniors list. He won and is currently the Corus Group C 2009 champion besting his nearest rival by 1 point. Clinched his ticket to the prestigious World Cup by placing 2nd during Zone 3.3 Chess Championship which was held on 23-29th July 2009 in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. In November-December at the 2009 Chess World Cup he defeated Gadir Guseinov and had shocking victories over former world championship contenders Vassily Ivanchuk (ELO 2739) and Gata Kamsky (ELO 2695) before being knocked out by Vladimir Malakhov in Round Four.
He is now playing in Corus B and scored 5 out of 8 with 2 wins and 6 draws. There are still 5 more rounds to play, we wait for good news from The Whizkid
Another chess prodigy (Part 4): Fabiano Caruana
(photo by: Fred Lucas)
Fabiano Caruana is an American-Italien chess grandmaster and achieved his first and second GM-Norms in March and April 2007 and his last GM Norm in July 2007 at the First Saturday-Tournament in Budapest aged just 14 years, 11 months and 20 days and became one of the youngest grandmasters of all times. He is now at his rating peak, with even more points to arrive from events yet to register. His rating rose over 600 ELO points in a span of 6 years or so!
Caruana was born in Miami, Florida on 30th July 1992. His family moved to Brooklyn, New York on 1996 and his parents signed him at chess club because young first-grader just couldn't sit still. Up to the age of twelve, he lived and played in the United States, with occasional travel to European and South American tournaments and at age 12 he relocated with his family from Park Slope, Brooklyn to Madrid, Spain to pursue chess in a more serious manner. He trained first with International Master Boris Zlotnik in Madrid, and later with Grandmaster Alexander Chernin (his current trainer) in Budapest.
Caruana, possessing dual citizenship of both the United States and Italy, has the option of FIDE affiliation with either country. On 11 October 2005, after living in Europe for 10 months, he transferred his affiliation from the United States (USA) to Italy (ITA). At the end of 2007 he participated in the Italian Championship. The prior year he became sub-championship of Italy by tieing with Michele Godena but losing the 5th rapid play-off game. This year he won with a score of +8 (9.5/11) to become the youngest ever Italian champion. In year 2008 was his first experience at Corus and throughout much of the tournament he was the clear leader. His last round opponent was Parimarjan Negi, and Caruana needed 1/2 point to win the tournament. Caruana won the game and the tournament with a final score of +7 (10/13) and performance of 2696. In the same year in Italian Championship, Caruana successfully defended his title winning the title for the second consecutive year with a score of +5 (8/11). Having won Corus C 2008, Caruana received and accepted invitation to Corus B 2009 which was of category 16 with average Elo of 2641. Throughout the tournament his standings ranged from first to third place. Going into the last round he was tied for second and his opponent was Nigel Short who was in clear first. Caruana won the game and performance of 2751. Caruana is the first player ever to win both Corus C and Corus B in consecutive years placing clear first in both. This year's Corus, he moves up to the strongest group. Shall he win the Corus A 2010 in order to continue his triumph streak? We'll see....
Another chess prodigy (Part 3): Sergey Karjakin
Who doesn't know him?
Everyone knows that...
He was a chess prodigy and holds the record for the youngest grandmaster in history, achieving the title at the age of twelve years and seven months.
Born on January 12th, 1990 in Simferopol, Ukraine, but on July 25th 2009, Karjakin adopted Russian citizenship. In the January FIDE rating list, he appeared as a Russian and has been living in Moscow lately. Karjakin learned to play chess when he was five years old and became an IM at age eleven. In 2001, he won the World Chess U12 championship. Sergey’s name became known when in 2002, before he was 12 years old, and before he made his GM title, when Ponomariov appointed him as his second for the FIDE world championships match with Ivanchuk. At age fourteen he defeated the reigning world champion, Vladimir Kramnik, during the 2004 Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting, in a blitz game (ten minutes for the entire game, plus five seconds per move). Karjakin entered the world's top 100 in the April 2005 FIDE list, where he was number 64 in the world with an Elo rating of 2635. During the Chess World Cup 2007, which served as a qualification tournament for the World Chess Championship 2009, Karjakin reached the semi-finals, in which he lost to Alexei Shirov. On the January 2008 FIDE rating list, published just before Karjakin's eighteenth birthday, he passed for the first time the 2700 mark, often seen as the line that separates "elite" players from other grandmasters, with a new rating of 2732 and a world rank of 13. In the world cup in Khanty Mansisyk, December 2009, Karjakin made his way till the semi final games, but as it was in 2007, he was knocked out at this very point: this time he lost to Boris Gelfand from Israel: 0-2. And right at this moment, he is struggling to defend his title as the champion of the Group A of Corus Wijk aan Zee that he won in 2009. His current rating is 2720.
A little about his personal life: On July 24th he married twenty-year-old Ukrainian WIM Kateryna Dolzhikova, rated 2272, at the Central Registry in Kiev. This was followed by a ceremony at the St. George Church in Kiev, with two dozen members of their family and closest friends were present.
Another chess prodigy (Part 2): Ray Robson
If in Group B there is Anish Giri, in Group C we have Ray Robson (born October 28, 1994), the latest Grandmaster from the United States. He earned his third and final GM norm in October 2009 by winning the Pan-American Junior Championship in Montevideo, Uruguay, making him a GM-elect. He was formally awarded the title in January 2010. Other norms were gained in August 2009 where Robson tied for first at the Arctic Chess Challenge in Tromso, Norway, garnering his first GM norm in the process. Later that same month, Robson then went on to earn his second GM norm by winning the 23rd North American FIDE Invitational in Skokie, Illinois.
With winning the final GM norm Robson becomes one of the youngest GMs in the history of chess. Here is the records list for the whole world.
1. Sergey Karjakin 12 years, 7 months, 0 days
2. Parimarjan Negi 13 years, 4 months, 22 days
3. Magnus Carlsen 13 years, 4 months, 27 days
4. Bu Xiangzhi 13 years, 10 months, 13 days
5. Teimour Radjabov 14 years, 0 months, 14 days
6. Ruslan Ponomariov 14 years, 0 months, 17 days
7. Wesley So 14 years, 1 month, 28 days
8. Etienne Bacrot 14 years, 2 months, 0 days
9. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 14 years, 4 months
10. Péter Lékó 14 years, 4 months, 22 days
11. Hou Yifan 14 years, 6 months, 16 days
12. Anish Giri 14 years, 7 months, 2 days
13. Yuriy Kuzubov 14 years, 7 months, 12 days
14. Dariusz Swiercz 14 years, 7 months, 29 days
15. Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son 14 years, 10 months, 0 days
16. Fabiano Caruana 14 years, 11 months, 15 days
17. Ray Robson 14 years, 11 months, 16 days
18. Koneru Humpy 15 years, 1 month, 27 days
19. Hikaru Nakamura 15 years, 2 months, 19 days
20. Pentala Harikrishna 15 years, 3 months, 5 days
So far in the Corus 2010, he scored 2 points out of 2 and led alone in Group C with a difference half a point. In the second round, he defeated the host player, Robin Swinkels, and won the 100-euro daily prize as the best game in Group C.
Another chess prodigy: Anish Giri
Who is Anish Giri?
He is one of the chess prodigies and world's youngest Grandmaster as of February 2009. At the age of 14, 7 months, and 2 days he completed his final GM norm in Corus C 2009, Wijk aan Zee, after beating Venezuelan GM Eduardo Iturrizaga. He is the youngest ever Grandmaster in the chess history of Soviet Union/Russia and Netherlands (when he achieved his third GM norm, he was affiliated with Russian Chess Federation; currently he is affiliated with Dutch Chess Federation). His current rating now is 2588.
He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in 28 June 1994. Son of a Nepalese father (Dr. Sanjay Giri) and a Russian mother (Olga Giri). He moved to Japan in 2002 with his parents. He was a member of Japan Chess Association and Sapporo Chess Club during his stay in Japan. He became Russian champion (U12) while he was living in Japan. In August 2007, he returned to St. Petersburg with his family. Since February 2008, Anish and his family have been residing in Netherlands.
Now he is playing in Group B in Corus 2010. In the first round he defeated GM Pentala Harikrishna of India (2672) in 55 moves with the white pieces in the Slav opening which is also the best game in group B, therefore Anish Giri awarded 250 euros. While the 500-euro prize in Group A was awarded to Alexey Shirov from Spain for his victory over Peter Leko. And in Group C, the 100-euro prize was given to Li Chao of China who won against the host Benjamin Bok.
