Chess: Abhimanyu Mishra breaks Sergey Karjakin’s record, becomes youngest grandmaster in history

Abhimanyu Mishra scored his third GM norm in Budapest to become the youngest chess grandmaster in history on Wednesday.

In the final round, he defeated the 15-year-old Indian GM Leon Luke Mendonca with the black pieces, securing a performance rating higher than 2600 over nine rounds.

The 12-year-old player from New Jersey in USA scored his third GM norm in Budapest, having already crossed the required 2500 Elo rating barrier. Mishra broke GM Sergey Karjakin’s record that has stood for 19 years.

While it took Karjakin 12 years and 7 months to secure the grandmaster title in 2002, Mishra took just took 12 years, four months, and 25 days to obtain the gold standard in chess.

Mishra scored both his first and second GM norms in Budapest too, at the April Vezerkepzo tournament and the May 2021 First Saturday tournament.

Only five players in history managed to get the title before their 13th birthday.

As US Chess reports, “This is not Mishra’s first record shattered. He was the youngest master in U.S. history at nine years and two months, and the youngest International Master ever at 10 years, nine months, and three days, breaking the record previously held by GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa by 17 days.”