1/1/2023 – We have been trying to keep track of incredible playing strength and title wins at a very early age. It started with Capablanca and Reshevsky, and today we are seeing full grandmasters aged thirteen — and in two cases even just twelve! Most recently it was Abhimanyu Mishra who achieved the title at twelve years and just under five months. It is time to update our prodigy page, with better graphics and a few telling graphs. We also invite our readers to contribute.

7/24/2022 – Usually, when discussing former chess prodigies, the talks will gravitate around the accomplishments while young, and then shift towards their accomplishments as a mature player. Among the most unusual stories of such in chess is that of a little girl whose feats were worthy of the fictitious Beth Harmon, yet never bloomed into the tale of an adult champion.

6/1/2022 – The claim to be the best ever in chess, in any category, is usually backed up by either hard numbers (Karpov's number of grandmaster tournament wins is not open to debate), or strong opinions such as the best absolute player. But the debate on the greatest prodigy seems to lie somewhere in between, depending on your criteria. Read this article and see if you agree. (photo: Capablanca at age four)

9/22/2020 – When was the first time in your life you played chess? Most probably at the age of six to eight years? Whatever the answer is, we have an adorable quiz about young titled chess masters for you. If chess is a big part in your life, which isn't a bad thing at all, you should be able to guess at least seven out of twelve correctly. Here is your challenge!

3/16/2020 – Miaoyi Lu might be a name well worth remembering. The Chinese player was born in 2010 but is already surprisingly strong. In March, she won a women's grandmaster tournament in Belgrade and that was not her first success — and will probably not be her last. | Photo: David Halter (USChess.org)

11/14/2019 – A lot of young talents like Praggnanandhaa, Sindarov, Abdusattorov, Gukesh etc. have tried their best to break Sergey Karjakin's record of becoming the youngest GM in the world at the age of 12 years and 7 months. But they all missed it by a small margin. Who has the best chance to break this record now? Well, it's a 10-year-old American boy of Indian origin who lives in New Jersey. Meet Abhimanyu Mishra, the youngest IM in the world. The youngster achieved this feat on November 8th 2019, at the age of 10 years 9 months and 3 days, thereby eclipsing Praggnanandhaa's record of the youngest IM by 17 days. Learn more about the youngster through this article and have a glimpse of his chess skills through the annotated game that he has sent us!

11/6/2019 – Are strong chess players generally better at logical thinking than people who rarely play the game? Can super-talented youngsters, of GM strength, solve logical puzzles better than amateurs or non-chess kids of the same age? Or are both equally good, or are the chess kids perhaps worse? ChessBase chief editor emeritus Frederic Friedel is conducting an experiment to find out. Today he tells us how his experiments so far have been conducted. Perhaps you can join in and supply your own results. Or at least have fun with his problems!

9/4/2019 – As we reported last week, Vladimir Kramnik conducted a special training camp in Chens-Sur-Léman, France, for six very talented Indian youngsters, all in their early teens, but already GMs or close to winning the title. The camp was sponsored by the Chennai-based company Microsense Private Limited and ended last Saturday. ChessBase editor Frederic Friedel visited the camp and watched the interaction between the kids and the former World Champion. | Photos: Amruta Mokal and Frederic Friedel

3/18/2019 – In January our editor emeritus Frederic Friedel took a trip to India, to visit our partners at ChessBase India, to visit two big GM Opens, and to meet some of the incredible young talents the country is currently producing. There was a preteen grandmaster, a number of candidate GMs in their very early teens, and a delightful U12 girl's world champion. Frederic made many new friends, but he also used the opportunity to conduct his famous talent test on them. Here are the results and a biographical video.

1/15/2019 – 12 years, 7 months and 17 days — that's the age of the new second youngest ever, GM-elect D. Gukesh. He's also the 60th grandmaster from India! How did this youngster achieve it? On the surface, it looks like an extremely smooth journey where Gukesh achieved one milestone after another. "But when you delve deeper", writes SAGAR SHAH, "you see tremendous amount of sacrifices, grit, determination and much more from not just the youngster and his entire family". | Photo: David Llada

12/7/2018 – Everyone talks about the Indian "wunderkinder" Nihal Sarin or Praggnanandhaa, but it's also increasingly possible a future world chess champion will come from Iran. Alireza Firozja is the world's highest rated player born in 2003 (he turned 15 in June), and his style is reminiscent of a famous "magician" from Riga. THORSTEN CMIEL shares this extensive portrait and GM IVAN SOKOLOV explains to SAGAR SHAH why he is reminded of a young Vishy Anand. | Photo: All-Indian Chess Federation

10/18/2018 – The last half year went well for the young Uzbek Javokhir Sindarov: In June he got his first GM norm in Voronezh, Russia. In September, at the World Junior Championships in Turkey, he scored a second and elevated his Elo rating to 2500. Now, less than a month later, Sindarov has reportedly earned his third and final GM norm, making him the second youngest GM ever, at the age of 12 years, 10 months and 8 days. | Photo: Sagar Shah

8/10/2018 – The family of a nine-year-old at the centre of a visa battle has been allowed to remain in the United Kingdom rather than be deported to India. Shreyas Royal has spent nearly six of his nine years resident in the UK, and has been tipped as “the best prospect the country has ever seen”, according to Grandmaster Chris Ward. The family had been told they were to leave by September 10th, but with a month to go, they have now been given a reprieve.

8/8/2018 – We have been trying to keep track of incredible playing strength and title wins at a very early age. It started with Capablanca and Reshevsky, and today we are seeing full grandmasters aged thirteen — and in two cases twelve! Most recently it was Pragnanandhaa, who achieved the title at twelve years and ten months. It became time to update our prodigy page, with better graphics and a few telling graphs. We also invite our readers to contribute.

7/6/2018 – R Praggnanandhaa recently qualified for the Grandmaster title at the Gredine Open in Italy. Besides scoring his final grandmaster norm with a round to spare, the little champ also finished joint first in the tournament alongside GM Ivan Saric. But this success came after a dismal finish at the Schaakweek Apeldoorn where he had finished at the bottom of the leaderboard. In this interview, he tells how he remains confident despite setbacks, his meeting with Vishy Anand and his preference for sambhar and rice over pizza. | Pictured: Praggnanandhaa received a grand welcome on his return to India | Photo: Arun Sekhar

4/4/2018 – R Praggnanandhaa had been making headlines ever since he became the world's youngest IM in May 2016. All eyes were on the little genius, with everyone eager to see if he could become the world's youngest GM too. The kid gave it his all, and as the deadline to break the record approached closer, he travelled across the globe playing every tournament that offered him the possibility of scoring a norm. But, in the end, he lost the race against time. However, Praggna earned heaps of admiration and love, and, most importantly, his zeal to excel remains undeterred. So, all things considered, wasn't the struggle worth a lot more than the record? | Photo: Lennart Ootes Reykjavik Open Facebook page

11/17/2017 – The World Junior Chess Championships is considered one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world – great players like Spassky, Karpov, Kasparov, Anand have been the World Junior Champions in the past. Players are 20 years old or younger. But after five rounds, in place three we find a 12-year-old who has beaten the top seed (GM Jorden van Foreest, rated 2616) in a flawless game for which we have video analysis. And in round five Indian prodigy R. Praggnanandhaa beat another GM and chalked up a rating performance of 2830!

11/5/2017 – Gone are the days of old men smoking pipes, playing chess in silence in draughty church halls. There has been an influx of youth, especially since the rise of extremely strong computers that allow youngsters to learn and advance in the game much faster than previously. This is especially the case in the U.S., where there is a seemingly endless stream of young talent coming through, most of them wildly underrated and poisonous for your Elo standing. Steve Barrett writes about this in CHESS Magazine.

10/29/2017 – Nodirbek Abdusattorov has GM norms from last year's Chigorin Memorial and from Abu Dhabi 2017. And now he's added a third in the Chigorin Memorial in St. Petersburg this weekend. Combined with a rating over 2500 he has met the qualifications for the GM title several months ahead of the previous record held by Parimarjan Negi. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/13/2017 – On 10th of August, R. Praggnanandhaa turned 12 years old, and crossed 2500 FIDE Elo. He has an opportunity to go after Sergey Karjakin's record as the youngest grandmaster ever. In Vlissingen, in the Zeeland province of southwest Netherlands last week, he dominated a simultaneous exhibition, scoring 20-0, then played the annual HZ Tournament there, narrowly missing a GM-norm. | Photo: hztoernooi.nl

4/16/2017 – Nihal Sarin has announced his arrival and how! It is true that he had already started making a name for himself as a dangerous 12-year-old boy who could crush you if you give him one small opportunity. But the TV2 Fagernes GM International saw the 12-year-old genius score his first GM norm, stay undefeated, smash a 2600 GM on the way, tie for second (take fourth place on the tiebreak), and play breathtaking chess. We have a report with grandmaster analysis of Nihal's games.

3/24/2017 – The Sharjah Masters 2017 was off to a rollicking start with about 180 players competing. While there were many upset draws, the one thing that stood out was the number of no-shows. The biggest upsets of the day were scored by the Indians—Viani Antonio Dcunha, Vignesh NR and Nihal Sarin. Illustrated report with video analyses by Daniel King.

10/26/2016 – While the Chigorin Memorial may no longer have the luster of other top international events, its long tradition and list of world class players who participated and won mean it can never lose its shine. For the second consecutive year, Kirill Alekseenko came ahead of the field of 372 strong, taking clear first with 8.0/9 and beating out 26 players higher rated. Nevertheless, this superb result was almost overshadowed by the GM norm with 2673 performance by 11-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

10/14/2016 – In the chess world, Dr. Kenneth A. “Ken” Kiewra was initially known as the father of IM Keaton Kiewra. He raised Keaton in Lincoln, Nebraska, where Keaton dominated chess, winning the Nebraska State Championship nine times in a row. As Keaton’s rating soared, Ken became interested in whether his parenting experience with Keaton was unique. His research into chess prodigies and their parents led to chapters in two books and an article in a peer-reviewed journal. Alexey Root asks Ken about his experience nurturing chess talent.