Woodward World's Youngest GM; 12-Year-Old Erdogmus Closes In On Polgar's Record

13-year-old U.S. IM Andy Woodward has secured his final norm to become the world's 10th youngest grandmaster in history. At the same event, 12-year-old Turkish IM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus picked up his second norm and edged closer to breaking a rating record of GM Judit Polgar's dating back to 1989.

Erdogmus dominated the Jeddah Youth Chess Festival which concluded in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. The Turkish youngster had already clinched tournament victory with two rounds to spare and finished on 6.5/9, half a point ahead of GM Volodar Murzin, top seed GM Raunak Sadhwani, and Woodward.

The tournament marked a significant success for Erdogmus, who earned his second GM norm, while Woodward fulfilled the final requirement for the grandmaster title

Woodward Becomes World's Youngest GM

Woodward, at just 13 years old, now stands as the second youngest grandmaster in U.S. history, only behind GM Abhimanyu Mishra, who achieved the title at 12 years and four months. Woodward is set to overtake 14-year-old GM Ihor Samunenkov as the world's youngest grandmaster once approved by FIDE, likely within the next few months. 

His overjoyed mother Wendy Woodward shared with Chess.com: "Andy feels very happy to finally achieve the grandmaster title. He had several disappointing tournaments that were half a point short before this," she said after a 25-hour journey back home. "He knew it was just a matter of time."

It was indeed a rough start to the tournament for the 13-year-old from Texas, who battled with jetlag and lost his first two games against Erdogmus and Murzin.

"He worried that he might miss the norm again. Luckily he recovered and bounced back later. It felt great to try hard and go against the odds to reach the goal," she says.

After defeating 10-year-old FM Faustino Oro in round three, Woodward went on to beat GM V Pranav in a great game in round four. GM Rafael Leitao annotated the game:

Woodward continued with another three wins in the next four rounds, and clinched the title with a draw against Sadhwani in the final round. With a flight back home at 6 a.m. the following morning, there was limited time to celebrate. His mother added: "Andy played with his new chess friends until 3 a.m. when we had to leave for the airport! I guess that counts as a celebration since he always thinks that the best part of a tournament is to spend time with his chess friends."

Nakamura Secured Coaching

Woodward has been considered among the world's best prospects ever since he earned the IM title at the age of 12 in 2022. At the end of the year he also earned his first grandmaster norm, in Los Angeles.

The same year GM Hikaru Nakamura named Woodward as one-to-watch, calling his games "very impressive." The world number three was clearly impressed by the youngster playing on the Gotham Knights team during the 2023 PRO Chess League, as the family was contacted and offered coaching on a regular basis.

"After he knew that Andy only took a one-hour weekly lesson, he offered to pay for more weekly lessons with no strings attached. He ended up paying for extra lessons for six months both with GM Yaroslav Zherebukh and GM Alex Lenderman," Wendy says.

"During that period, he said Andy can ask him any chess-related questions and he always responded quickly whenever we had questions. Andy was more motivated in training just because he knew Hikaru cared about his progress. He scored his second norm during that period. We are very grateful for Hikaru to notice Andy and reach out to us!"

Zherebukh tells Chess.com that he has been working with Woodward on a weekly basis since 2020. Nakamura's initiative allowed him to increase the training to up to 4-6 hours per week.

"I’m immensely grateful that Hikaru was able to recognize Andy’s talent and decided to take a personal interest in him," he said.

The grandmaster says he thinks Woodward has a bright future and can reach his full potential with the right amount of work and discipline.

"With the GM title under his belt, Andy can now play stress-free without thinking about the titles or norms. He should be able to reach 2600+ in the nearest future, and then he has a full capacity of reaching a super-GM level of 2700 and beyond."

Asked about Woodward's biggest strengths, Zherebukh says:

"His creativity and calculation. Even now, he’s able to calculate the longest and the most complicated variations faster than I do. He’s also quite tenacious in defense, constantly looking for a tactical chance to turn the game in his favor."

The 13-year-old also attends a ChessKid-sponsored online group class for top teenage talents, taught by GM Ivan Sokolov. He told Chess.com:

"I have worked a few sessions with Andy. The last session was related to defending "on demand" an inferior endgame. Usually, kids Andy's age are not enthusiastic about similar sessions. Andy was!"

"He very quickly understood the essence of the problem. Though online sessions are not the same as face-to-face and it is difficult based on limited time to make comparisons, the speed of Andy's understanding was impressive."

Woodward is now the 10th youngest grandmaster in the history, and one of only 14 players to achieve the title before the age of 14.

The Top 10 Youngest Grandmasters In History

Erdogmus Closing In On Legendary Polgar Record

Turkish chess sensation Erdogmus proved yet again that he is one of the world's greatest prospects. He ended the tournament with a loss after having a winning position against Murzin, but five wins from the first seven rounds ensured that he had already clinched victory. 

He finished off Woodward in beautiful manner in round one.

Erdogmus, a year younger than Woodward, has had a remarkable rise since returning to competitive play after the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, with his rating skyrocketting from 1955 to 2456 in a little over a year. Shortly after, he earned his IM title to become Turkey's youngest international master ever.

Last December, Erdogmus scored his first GM norm in the Chessable Sunway Sitges Chess Festival, breaking the 2500 rating barrier for the first time. With the second norm secured, he is now well on the way to becoming one of the world's youngest grandmasters ever. Only five players in history have attained the GM title before the age of 13.

The Turkish youngster is currently not only the world's highest-rated player under 14, but he is also among the highest-rated players below 13 in the history of the game. That list has been topped by Judit Polgar since 1989, according to Chess.com's research, but Erdogmus is now approaching 2550 and has time until his 13th birthday in June to beat the record.

Erdogmus has also been displaying extraordinary skills online as legendisback1 on Chess.com, where he is one of the top blitz players, with an impressive blitz high of 3103 and a bullet high of 2953.