Chess prodigy

Chess prodigies are children who play so good chess, that they are able to beat Masters and Grandmasters, often at a very young age. Some of them have become World Champions, others failed to make progress.

The chess world always looks with big expectations to these prodigies. Chess is one of the few sports where children can compete with adults.

The has been a tendency for chess players to gain the Grandmaster title earlier and earlier in their lives. One possible reason for this is that the number of grandmasters on the whole has increased.

List of chess prodigies

Michael Adams became an International Master at 15 and a grandmaster at 17
Etienne Bacrot
José Raúl Capablanca, later World Champion, learned the rules when he was 4 and was a strong player as a child
Bobby Fischer, the later World Champion, became US Champion at the age of 15; at 13, he won the "The Game of The Century"
Koneru Humpy is said to be the youngest Woman Grandmaster ever, but this is debated.
Gata Kamsky had an Elo rating of 2650 at the age of 16
Sergey Karjakin, at the age of 12 years and 7 months he became the youngest grandmaster ever. He was the official second (helper) of fellow Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov, during the 2002 FIDE Worldchampionship.
Luke McShane won the World Under-10 Championship at the age of eight
Joel Lautier
Peter Leko
Paul Morphy, who at the age of twelve won a match 2.5 - 0.5 against Johann Löwenthal
Judit Polgar
Ruslan Ponomariov, the current FIDE World Champion
Teimour Radjabov, became the youngest Grandmaster at the age of 14 years, until Karjakin broke his record. In the 2003 Linares tournament, he beat Gary Kasparov with the black pieces, althought due to a big blunder of Kasparov.
Samuel Reshevsky, a polish boy, learned the rules at the age of 4, and gave simultaneous exhibitions at the age of six. His parents moved to the United States of America where they made a living of the talent of their child.
Nigel Short finished joint-first in the British Championship at the age of 14
Josh Waitzkin

External link

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=310 Chessbase news about young Grandmasters.

See Prodigy for alternate definitions