Abhimanyu Mishra
How much does a two-year-old child understand? Half-talking, stumbling while running, learning a little—this is how most children spend their days. But Indian-origin Abhimanyu Mishra had a different childhood. At the age of two, when everyone was busy learning to crawl and walk on two legs, Abhimanyu was busy with chess pieces and boards. From that age, Abhimanyu Mishra kept his neck on the chess board without entering the world of toys or cartoons. His life revolves around that white-black board of 64 rooms.
Abhimanyu, who started playing chess at such an early age, wrote his name in the history pages on June 30, 2021. At just 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days old, he became the world’s youngest chess grandmaster, surpassing Russian Grandmaster Sergey Kariakin’s record set 19 years ago. In 2002, Kariakin became the youngest Grandmaster at the age of 12 years and 7 months.
Father Hemant Mishra introduced Abhimanyu to chess at a very young age. A two-year-old boy knows chess pieces and their moves. Since then, Abhimanyu’s love affair with chess began and he started participating in various tournaments before the age of five. It was at this time that Hemant Mishra turned to a grandmaster named Arun Prasad to take his son deeper into chess. His house was very close to Abhimanyu’s house. After discussing chess with Abhimanyu for a while, Arun realized that this boy would go far. Arun said, “He was able to understand all the moves without any difficulty. That day I realized, this boy was not like my other 10 students. This boy has come to be a headline in the future.’ Jahuri Arun’s eyes did not make a mistake in recognizing the diamond.
Abhimanyu responded to the entire United States before creating a stir at the international level. At the age of 9, he became the youngest chess player to win the National Master title. At the age of 11, he earned the International Master title, which is one step below the Grandmaster title.
Abhimanyu had just one year and six months to become the youngest Grandmaster. Abhi will become the youngest Grandmaster if he can achieve the Grandmaster title within 12 years and 7 months. Hemant Mishra thinks, what is the harm in trying? So one day he called his son and said, look, such an opportunity comes once in a lifetime and you will never be a 12-year-old again.
Abhimanyu also did not want to miss such an opportunity. But two things stood in his way. The first is the chess rating-related complications. To earn the title of Grandmaster, you need a minimum rating of 2500. Even though Abhimanyu’s rating was high for his age, it was not enough to become a Grandmaster. As a result, he had to play a lot of matches in a year to get enough ratings. And it’s not enough to just play, you have to win the matches. However, Abhimanyu’s family does not want to give up his education in chess. So at that age, Abhimanyu started eating almost hard.
The second obstacle in his way was the global pandemic of Covid-19. Finding enough matches during this pandemic was also a huge challenge. Because many of the tournaments that could have been won to earn ratings were cancelled due to COVID-19.
Seeing all this, Hemant and Abhi play a kind of bet. They decided that Abhi would complete his fifth and sixth-grade studies in just 12 months, after which the two would take a break from studying to pursue the title of Grandmaster.
As a result Abhimanyu completely disappeared from school in 2019-20. But he was not upset at all about not being able to go to school. Abhimanyu says, ‘Actually, I never had time to miss school. If I thought about these things too much, I wouldn’t be able to do my job properly. Of course, because of this, I don’t have many friends at school.
Everyone can be shocked to hear such a young boy’s responsible words like adults. But Sergei Kariakin, who held the title of youngest grandmaster for 19 years, did not find it unusual at all. He was addicted to chess from a very young age. At the age of seven, Karyakin would spend hours playing chess. Kariakin said, “From the age of seven, I used to play chess for about seven to eight hours every day. As a result, this is very normal for me. I think I got my first vacation when I was 13. That day was the first time I did not touch a piece of chess or discuss anything related to it.’
As time dwindled, the path became more impassable for Abhimanyu. Chess tournaments were being cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, or travel restrictions were being imposed on the countries where the tournaments were being held. Abhimanyu missed several rated international tournaments in early 2020. Having achieved the title of ‘International Master’ at the age of 11, Abhimanyu thought that becoming the youngest grandmaster might not be too difficult for him. But the coronavirus messed up everything. During the time Abhimanyu was supposed to have travelled to Europe several times, he did not get the opportunity due to Corona. During the coronavirus pandemic, Abhimanyu had the opportunity to travel to Europe only once, to Budapest, the capital of Hungary. Despite missing many tournaments, the father and son thought that if they could stay in Budapest for a while, then maybe enough matches would be played in this one country and there might be a chance to achieve the record. As a result, the two of them came to Budapest from the US without any return tickets. The two took the challenge together and returned home with the title of the youngest grandmaster.
This stay in Budapest was not a comfortable trip for the two. Hemant Mishra, a software engineer by profession, used to work till three in the morning to keep his job alive. The two fought silently for months.
Abhimanyu played 70 matches in just 77 days to become the youngest Grandmaster. During the day he would participate in tournaments, and at night he would prepare for the next day’s games. Whenever Abhimanyu gets very close to 2500 rating to succeed in the tournament, his name is spread in the world of chess. Abhimanyu achieved 130 rating points in just 3 months! And he becomes very close to the Grandmaster title.
Everyone can understand how much trouble Abhimanyu had to achieve this title from a small incident. In the highest level ‘classical chess’ format, both opponents have about an hour and a half at the start of the game, with an additional 30 minutes after 40 moves. Also, each move adds another 30 seconds. As a result, the game goes on for hours, sometimes even days. Once such a game went on till night it became very difficult for little Abhimanyu to sleep. The opponent also understands this and intentionally makes late moves so that Abhimanyu cannot concentrate on the game. But these things can’t stop Abhi, he only stops when he reaches a certain goal.
When Abhimanyu finally became the youngest Grandmaster on June 30, there was a wave of happiness across the world. His achievement was celebrated by cutting cakes at various places. Legendary chess players felicitated Abhimanyu, notable among whom were current World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and former World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand.
Sergey Karyakin was very happy to see that Abhimanyu was finally able to break this record of his own. He also praised Abhimanyu’s game, “I never thought that I could own this record for 19 years.” It’s a wonder that this record has lasted so long in this modern age. I have seen several games of Abhimanyu. He played a few matches very well.
Although there is no other title after Grandmaster, those Grandmasters whose rating is above 2700 points are called ‘Super Grandmasters’. For now, Abhimanyu’s target is to achieve 2700 ratings as Super Grandmaster. But his main goal is bigger. 12-year-old Abhimanyu dreams that one day he will become a world champion in chess. Abhimanyu’s commitment to mixed chess at such a young age is certainly not impossible to achieve.
