The Youngest Chess Grandmasters In History

The game of chess just keeps getting younger and younger! Grandmaster titles are now being achieved at twelve, thirteen, and fourteen years of age. Young talents are able to take advantage of the wealth of information, consistent and regular tournaments, and government supports on a global level. The one thing that remains from the dawn of chess is that to reach the top hard-work is still king.

Top Youngest Grandmasters | Top Women's Youngest Grandmasters

Top 12:

• Abhimanyu Mishra
• Sergey Karjakin
• Gukesh Dommaraju
• Javokhir Sindarov
• Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu
• Nodirbek Abdusattorov
• Parimarjan Negi
• Magnus Carlsen
• Wei Yi
• Andy Woodward
• Raunak Sadhwani
• Bu Xiangzhi

This list showcases the top 44 youngest grandmasters as of April 1, 2024. After barely holding onto the record with GM Gukesh Dommaraju missing him by just 17 days, GM Sergey Karjakin's record was broken by IM Abhimanya Mishra in 2021.

Youngest Chess Grandmasters

* Pending official FIDE confirmation

Abhimanyu Mishra

Abhimanyu Mishra became the youngest international master in 2019 at the age of 10 and began earning his GM norms in 2021. On June 30, he earned his third and final norm at the Vezerkepzo GM Mix Swiss tournament in Budapest, Hungary to become the youngest GM in history. Mishra broke Karjakin's record, which had stood for 19 years, by more than two months in age.

Here's a clean victory for Mishra over GM Zoltan Varga from the 5th Vezerkepzo GM tournament in 2021.

Sergey Karjakin

For 19 years, GM Sergey Karjakin held the record for the youngest grandmaster in chess history at 12 years old and 7 months. Like many children, Karjakin learned chess at the age of five, and just six years later at the age of 11 he was an international master. Karjakin has been World Rapid Champion (2012), and World Blitz Champion (2016). In March 2016 he won the Candidates' Tournament and earned the right to challenge Magnus Carlsen for the World Chess Championship. Though Karjakin lost this match to Carlsen in November 2016, he still has aspirations to challenge the champion in the future.

Karjakin played one of the best games of his career against Caruana at the 2016 Candidates' Tournament. This fighting, back-and-forth game shows the trademark style of Karjakin.

Gukesh Dommaraju

At the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days, Indian prodigy GM Gukesh Dommaraju (or Gukesh D.) became the second youngest grandmaster in chess history. He scored his third grandmaster norm at the 17th Delhi International Chess Grandmaster Open in New Delhi, India. Gukesh's talent was spotted by his first and school coach Mr. Bhaskar, who made sure little Gukesh became a FIDE rated player within six months of learning the game!

Gukesh played his last game as an International Master, winning this game to earn his final grandmaster norm.

Javokhir Sindarov

When GM Javokhir Sindarov earned the grandmaster title, he was the first player since Karjakin to reach the title before he turned 13! The Uzbek youngster earned each of his three norms in one year at the 2018 Alekhine Memorial, the FIDE World Junior Championship and the First Saturday Tournament.

Sindarov earned his final grandmaster norm at the First Saturday Tournament in Budapest, Hungary, where he recovered from a first-round loss, going on a 7/8 run in his remaining games.

Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu

At the age of 12 years, 10 months, and 13 days, Indian prodigy GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu became the then second youngest grandmaster in chess history. He scored his third grandmaster norm at the fourth Gredine open in Ortisei, Italy.

Praggnanandhaa first made his name known by winning continental (Asian) championships and two world championship titles. Praggnanandhaa was also the world's youngest international master at 10 years old, a record he still holds.

Having already earned his final GM norm in the Gredine open, the Indian prodigy beat GM Roeland Pruijssers to finish a record-breaking tournament performance:

Nodirbek Abdusattorov

GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov's name made headlines first when he defeated two grandmasters at the age of nine, in 2014 at the Tashkent Open. He scored his first GM norm in the 2016 Chigorin Memorial and then went on to achieve his second in Abu Dhabi in August 2017. He is by far the biggest Uzbek talent since Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who won the 2004 FIDE Knockout World Championship in Tripoli.

Abdusattorov earned his final grandmaster norm at the Chigorin Memorial, where he beat both GMs S. P. Sethuraman and Evgeny Levin.

Parimarjan Negi

Now a PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, GM Parimarjan Negi earned the grandmaster title back in 2006 when he was just 13 years old. Since he got the title, Negi has won the Arjuna Award (2010) from the Indian government, the Indian and Asian Chess Championships, and was a member of the 2014 bronze medal-winning team at the Olympiad for India.

Negi's performance in this win against GM Ragger was a fantastic demonstration on how to beat the Caro-Kann, as White's pressure throughout the game was constant.

Magnus Carlsen

Nicknamed the "Mozart of Chess," GM Magnus Carlsen is in a league of his own. The reigning world champion's rating has skyrocketed past Garry Kasparov’s previous record of 2851 to an unfathomably high 2882. With fierce determination and a palpable will to win, he has dazzled fans with his ability to out-work his opponents and find computer-like moves in his games time after time.

While Carlsen is most known for grinding out wins in near-equal endgames, his most famous game might be his draw against Garry Kasparov, when he was just 13 years old.

Wei Yi

GM Wei Yi has broken all kinds of rating and age records throughout his lifetime. He is also the 2nd youngest player in history to break the 2600 rating barrier, after John M. Burke. 

Wei's quick progress is apparent, earning both the international master and grandmaster titles in the same year. He was the world’s youngest grandmaster when he earned the title, being only 13 years 8 months and 23 days old.

Andy Woodward

GM-elect Andy Woodward will be the 10th-youngest in history and the youngest in the world when confirmed by FIDE at their next conference.

Raunak Sadhwani

GM Raunak Sadhwani is currently India's fourth youngest ever grandmaster. While also getting is Elo over 2500, Sadhwani scored his third grandmaster norm in the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss in October 2019 in Isle of Man.

Sadhwani ended up scoring 50 percent in a strong field. His opponents were GMs Sanan Sjugirov, Sergey Karjakin, Surya Ganguly, Ivan Saric, Pavel Eljanov, Peter Leko, Gabriel Sargissian, Markus Ragger, Alexander Motylev, Bassem Amin and Maksim Chigaev.

Here's how he defeated former European Champion Alexander Motylev:

Bu Xiangzhi

GM Bu Xiangzhi earned his title in 1999, making him the youngest GM in chess history when he broke the record (Karjakin would break the record in 2002). Bu won the Chinese Chess Championship in 2004, and has since represented China in four Olympiads, including the 2018 Olympiad where China won gold.

A well-known talent, Bu made more headlines in 2017 when he eliminated Magnus Carlsen in the World Cup, and then beat the world champion again in the World Rapid Championship later that same year.

Top 6 Youngest Female Chess Grandmasters

Only six female players have successfully broken the grandmaster barrier before turning twenty.

• Hou Yifan
• Humpy Koneru
• Judit Polgar
• Kateryna Lagno
• Aleksandra Goryachkina
• Lei Tingjie

Hou Yifan

Four-time women's world chess champion GM Hou Yifan also holds the record for the fastest any female player has reached the GM title, at just 14 years and 5 months. The Chinese grandmaster is the third woman to ever break the top 100 live rating list, behind GMs Maia Chiburdanidze and Judit Polgar. 

Hou has played in many elite invitational events, including the Tata Steel Chess tournament where she beat GM Anish Giri with the Black pieces:

Humpy Koneru

When GM Humpy Koneru made the grandmaster title in 2002, she broke the record for fastest woman to reach the GM title at just 15 years and 1 month. In 2011, the Indian grandmaster was the challenger for the women's world championship title, where she lost to Hou Yifan. Over fifteen years later, Koneru is still one of the best female players in the world. 

One of Koneru's best wins came against Peruvian grandmaster Julio Granda Zuniga, where the final position is a worthy Puzzle Rush tactic!

Judit Polgar

GM Judit Polgar is the only female player to have ever broken 2700 and is the strongest women's chess player of all-time. Polgar is now retired, but has beaten players like Magnus Carlsen, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, and many others.

There is no game in Judit Polgar's career that is more famous than her victory over Garry Kasparov in 2002.

Kateryna Lagno

Currently the fourth best female chess player in the world, GM Kateryna Lagno has broken records on her way to the top of competitive women’s chess. Lagno won the European women's championship in both 2005 and 2008, and played in the 2018 women's world championship against GM Ju Wenjun. 

Here's a crushing win of Lagno's against former women's world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk:

Aleksandra Goryachkina

GM Aleksandra Goryachkina has taken the chess world by storm. At just 20 years old, the Russian grandmaster has already broken the top 10 women's list. In 2015, she won the Russian women's championship superfinal. The Russian grandmaster repeated the feat in 2017.

While perhaps not her toughest opponent, Goryachkina showed how dangerous she can be in this display against the Stonewall Dutch:

Lei Tingjie

GM Lei Tingjie is one of the strongest female players in China. Lei has participated in a myriad of team events for China that have resulted in gold medals: the Asian Nations Cup (2016), the Batumi Olympiad (2018) and the World Team Championship (2019).

Here's a game Lei won in the 2017 World Rapid Championships with Black, a complete positional masterclass from start to finish!

Now, it's your turn...

Do you think that these records will be broken with the new computer-powered generations?

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