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January 9, 2006

From post-mortem to post-modern

India's Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand, currently number three in the world's chess rankings, once remarked that if "you're not a grandmaster at 14, you can forget about it." And this is quite true with the recent number of pre-pubescents skyrocketing from all parts of the world - from Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Sergei Karjakin of the Ukraine.

Well, we now have a new kid on the block and his name is Parimarjan Negi of India - the world's youngest grandmaster at 12 years, 10 months and 29 days! Negi is a chess prodigy and recently received his first grandmaster norm in the famous Hastings Tournament in England with a performance of 2568.

FAMOUS POST-MORTEMS OF YESTERYEAR:

Paul Morphy, 1837-1884, beat Johann Löwenthal 3-0 at age 12.

José Raúl Capablanca, 1888-1942, learned chess at the age of four, beat his country's chess champion in a match when he was 13, and eventually became world champion.

Samuel Reshevsky, learned the rules at the age of 4, and gave simultaneous exhibitions at the age of six.

Arturo Pomar played in the Spanish Championship at age 10 and became a master at age 13. He drew Alekhine in Gijon in 1944 at the age of 13.

Boris Spassky became an International Grandmaster at 18 and went on to become world champion.

Bobby Fischer became US Champion at the age of 14 and a world championship candidate at 15. He went on to become world champion.

Henrique Mecking of Brazil learned the game at 6, gave some simultaneous displays at 9, won the Brazilian championship at 13, and South American Zonal at 14, and became an IM at 15. He won two Interzonal Tournaments in a row, at 21 and 24.

Anatoly Karpov became a grandmaster at 18 and went on to become world champion.

Garry Kasparov became a grandmaster at 17 and went on to become the youngest ever world champion (at 22).

Nigel Short finished joint first in the British Championship at the age of 14.

Viswanathan Anand became India's first International Grandmaster at 18 and went on to become the FIDE knockout world champion.

Michael Adams became an International Master at 15 and a grandmaster at 17.

AND THE POST-MODERNS OF LATTER DAYS:

Pentala Harikrishna became India's youngest grandmaster at 15.

Gata Kamsky had an Elo rating of 2650 at the age of 16, who is recently back in the game.

Luke McShane won the World Under-10 Championship at the age of eight.

Ukraine's Ruslan Ponomariov became the youngest ever FIDE knockout world champion at the age of 18.

Alejandro Ramirez became a grandmaster at 15, a month earlier than Fischer. He is the first grandmaster ever in Central America.

Magnus Carlsen became the second-youngest grandmaster in history at 13, and broke Fischer's record by becoming a world championship candidate at 15 years and one month.

Source: Chessbase.com

Posted by rene on January 9, 2006 9:59 AM

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