Second GM norm for Abhimanyu

by Sagar Shah
5/11/2021 – 12-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra scored his 2nd GM norm at the First Saturday GM Round Robin May 2021 with a round to spare. This is the second consecutive event in which Abhimanyu has scored a GM norm, with a dominating 2700+ performance. He is now just 29 Elo points and one GM norm away from becoming the world's youngest grandmaster. Abhi has annotated his eighth round game for us, and will play against ChessBase Premium Members tomorrow.
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Karjakin's record for the youngest GM stands since 2002 at the age of 12 years and 7 months. Abhimanyu has time until 5th of September! Will he manage to break it?

The 12-year-old is on fire at the First Saturday GM norm May event in Budapest, Hungary. He won his 8th round encounter, and with 7.0/8, he scored his 2nd GM norm with a round to spare (here's the current cross table). Not only that, the lad also performed at an Elo of 2703, gaining 24 rating points. Abhimanyu's live rating is now 2471. The boy has time until 5th of September (just under four months) to break Sergey Karjakin's youngest GM record. He needs one last GM norm and 29 Elo points.

Abhimanyu with his father Hemant in Budapest yesterday

Abhimanyu's eighth round victory analyzed by the boy

Immediately after finishing the game, Abhimanyu came back to his room, freshened up and annotated this game for the readers of ChessBase. Enjoy the youngster's analysis:

 
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MoveNResultEloPlayers
1.e41,166,62354%2421---
1.d4947,29855%2434---
1.Nf3281,60256%2441---
1.c4182,10256%2442---
1.g319,70256%2427---
1.b314,26554%2427---
1.f45,89748%2377---
1.Nc33,80151%2384---
1.b41,75648%2380---
1.a31,20654%2404---
1.e31,06848%2408---
1.d395450%2378---
1.g466446%2360---
1.h444653%2374---
1.c343351%2426---
1.h328056%2418---
1.a411060%2466---
1.f39246%2436---
1.Nh38966%2508---
1.Na34262%2482---
1.e4 e6 I played the french to suprise my opponent who was expecting Najdorf as I had played it in this tournament 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4 Qc7 8.Bd3!? this is one moves here apart from Qxg7. The idea of bd3 is to meet cxd4 with ne2 The main line runs 8.Qxg7 Rg8 9.Qxh7 cxd4 with complications as cxd4 fails to qc3+ 8...c4 Here too 8...cxd4 exists but white gets an improved version of Qxg7 lines as after ne2 his bishop isnt blocked 9.Ne2 dxc3 10.Qxg7 Rg8 11.Qxh7 9.Be2 Qa5!? The point of including this before Nf5 is that in this structure, one of White's plan is a4 followed by Ba3 activating the bishop. By forcing the bishop to d2 then getting to a3-f8 diagonal will be harder 10.Bd2 Nf5 11.Qf4 Qa4 preventing a4 and gaining tempo 12.Bd1 12.Ra2 is also possible, leaving the bishop free 12...Nc6 13.Nf3 Bd7 Black's plan in this position is to castle long then after preparation open the kingside with f6 14.Ng5?! This doesnt make sense as the knight will be kicked back. If he wanted to go to h3 then he could have saved two tempi by playing Nh3 instead of Nf3 Better was 14.Nh4 but even then Black should be fine after 0-0-0 15.Nxf5 exf5 with a plan of h6, rdg8 and g5 14...h6 15.Nh3 Maybe 15.Nxf7!? was what he originally intended but Black is at least fine Kxf7 16.g4 Nce7 17.gxf5 Nxf5 15...Rf8!? 15...0-0-0 I considered this move, but didn't like it due to 16.g4 Nh4 17.Qg3 17.Qxf7? g5!-+ White queen has no way back 17...Ng6 18.0-0 as f6 can be met with f4 and ng6 is a little misplaced 16.g4 Nfe7 17.g5? This is a mistake, as now I get f5 square for my knights. Nf5 18.gxh6 gxh6 19.Bg4 Nce7 19...Qxc2 was a move, but I didn't want to lose control of f5 and double my pawns 20.Bxf5 exf5 21.0-0= 20.Ra2? The white king should defend c2 not the rook. 20.Kd1! 0-0-0 21.Kc1 20...0-0-0 The center is about to blow up. White should hurry his king to safety. 21.Qf3? this wastes further time 21.Kd1!? 21...f6! 22.Qe2 22.exf6 was better, but White's position is terrible 22...fxe5 23.Qxe5 Nc6 24.Qe2 e5!-+ The white king is too weak. 25.dxe5 Nxe5 26.Bh5 Nh4 27.Nf4 27.Qxe5 Rfe8 28.Bxe8 Nf3+-+ 27...Rf5! 28.Be3 28.0-0 fails to Rxh5 29.Nxh5 Bg4-+ 28...Qc6! d4 is unstoppable 29.Rg1 d4 30.cxd4 Nef3+ 31.Kf1 Nxh2+ 32.Ke1 N2f3+ 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Seemann,J2288Mishra,A24240–12021C18First Saturday May 20218

Abhimanyu will next play at the GM Round Robin Invitational in Hungary from the 13th of May 2021. But before that he will appear on ChessBase India's livestream to play against the Premium Members of ChessBase Account.

But even without a Premium Account you can watch the broadcast – and gain an impression of this remarkable young chess talent. 

He has a good chess teacher...

Breaking: here the final ranking after nine rounds. Abhi won his last game, beating top seed GM Vojtech Plat (who finished third). The boy ended the tournament with a total of 8.0/9 – just two draws, three full points ahead of everyone else. His rating performance was 2739, and with that he has gained 30.5 Elo points.

Hang on to your hat, Magnus! 

Sagar is an International Master from India with two GM norms. He loves to cover chess tournaments, as that helps him understand and improve at the game he loves so much. He is the co-founder and CEO of ChessBase India, the biggest chess news portal in the country. His YouTube channel has over a million subscribers, and to date close to a billion views. ChessBase India is the sole distributor of ChessBase products in India and seven adjoining countries, where the software is available at a 60% discount. compared to International prices.

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