Breaking Sergey Karjakin's youngest GM in the history of chess (12 years and 7 months) record seems very realistic for 12-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra. 5th of September is still roughly around 90 days away and Abhimanyu needs only 1 GM norm and 4 Elo points to reach 2500! You become a GM when your rating crosses 2500 Elo and you have three GM norms. Abhimanyu has two GM norms already and his rating has climbed up to 2496.
The last couple of months have been dream come true for the youngster as he has gained 90 Elo points and moved from 2408 to 2496. But things have been far from easy. Abhimanyu and his father Hemant travelled from the USA to Budapest under quite a lot of stress related to Covid-19. They weren't sure whether they would be allowed to fly or would make it to the tournaments in Hungary. Those initial moments of stress turned into relief when Abhimanyu sat for his first game at the board on 14th of April 2021. Since then Abhimanyu has played 45 games almost without a break in five back to back tournaments. The father and son duo have a clockwork like routine which involves chess preparation, fitness, cooking food and Abhimanyu giving it his all at the chess board. Below are the five events along with the scorecards and dates for you to understand how well this youngster has performed.
We asked Abhimanyu to share with us his favourite game of the event and he chose his victory over the experienced Hungarian GM Zoltan Varga. While we know how good Abhimanyu is tactically, this game shows his positional skills and how he is also able to milk small advantages and take the game to its logical conclusion.
Abhimanyu vs Varga
Abhimanyu's next tournament will begin from the 5th of June 2021 at the First Saturday GM norm June edition. His father Hemant calls this period of five days as one where they are getting their much needed rest. The little boy we are sure is far away from taking rest. He must be sharpening his axe to finish the formalities for becoming a Grandmaster! It's not going to be easy though, he has to fight it out against some talented young Indian players.
We want to thank all our viewers who supported Abhimanyu through his Gofundme page. In the last month or so over 12,000 USD have been raised and this will definitely help Abhimanyu in his aim of becoming the youngest GM in the world. Speaking to ChessBase India Abhimanyu's father Hemant said, "We would like to thank all the chess enthusiasts world wide who supported Abhimanyu to the bottom of our heart. It would not have been possible without this generous support and love. We are still waiting for one more good tournament and will keep pressing till the last day."
