Chess History in a Nutshell 111 – Young Star: Vincent Keymer
Vincent Keymer (born November 15, 2004, in Mainz, Germany) hails from a city renowned for its tradition of hosting rapid tournaments and Chess960 events. He learned chess from his parents at the age of five. In 2015 and 2017, he became European champion with the German U18 national chess team.
At just 10 years old, Keymer appeared on the cover of the September 2015 issue of Schach Magazin, hailed as Germany’s greatest chess talent since Emanuel Lasker. Garry Kasparov called Keymer "exceptional" in 2016, and at age 11, Keymer confirmed his promise with an "impressive second prize" in a strong field at the Vienna Open tournament.
He was coached by Hungary’s Peter Leko, himself once considered "the world’s most promising prodigy."
From March 29 to April 2, 2018, Keymer competed as the 99th seed in the A-group of the Grenke Chess Open. He won the tournament ahead of 49 grandmasters, including four with Elo ratings above 2700, scoring 8/9 and achieving his first GM norm at just 13 years old. His score was even 1.5 points above the threshold required for the GM norm. With a tournament performance rating (TPR) of 2798, he set a record for the highest-ever TPR by a player under 14—one of the most sensational results in chess history.
He earned the grandmaster title in 2021, which he noted in an interview came "relatively late."
As expected, more impressive results followed in subsequent years. For instance, in 2022, Keymer won the Challengers group at the Prague Chess Festival with 6½/9, defeating Hans Niemann in the playoffs to qualify for the Masters section the following year. That same year, he finished second in the World Rapid Chess Championship, defeating none other than Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi along the way.
In an interesting side note, Keymer also served as a second for India’s Gukesh Dommaraju, contributing to the team that helped Gukesh defeat Ding Liren in the World Cup match.
Perhaps the greatest success of Keymer’s still-young career came in February this year when he won the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, the inaugural leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. He achieved this by first defeating Magnus Carlsen in the semifinals and then overcoming Fabiano Caruana in the final—an unprecedented accomplishment!
In the position below, White is a pawn up and has two heavy pieces on the seventh rank. At first glance, it seems Black is fully in control, thanks to domination of the dark squares. It appears White cannot improve his bishop, but Keymer finds a hidden way to activate his "bad" bishop, turning it into the hero of the game!
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