Chess prodigy

Eleven-year-old Sammy Reshevsky, New York 1922

Chess prodigies are children who can beat experienced adult players and even Masters at chess. Expectations can be high for chess prodigies; while some become World Champions, others show little or no progress in adulthood.

Early chess prodigies were Paul Morphy (1837-1884) and José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942), both of whom won matches against strong adult opponents at the age of 12, and Samuel Reshevsky (1911-1992), who was giving simultaneous exhibitions at the age of six. Morphy went on to be unofficial World Champion (before the official title existed), Capablanca became World Champion, and Reshevsky - while never attaining the title - was amongst the top few players in the world for many years.

List of youngest grandmasters

One measure of chess prodigies is the age at which they gain the Grandmaster title. Below are players who have held the record for youngest grandmaster. The age listed is the age at which they qualified for the title. This is not equal to the age at which they officially became Grandmasters, because GM titles can only be awarded at FIDE congresses.

Note: all players are listed by their nationality at the time of gaining the title, not their current or later nationality.

Year	Player	Country	Age
1950	David Bronstein	Soviet Union	26 years
1952	Tigran Petrosian	Soviet Union	23 years
1955	Boris Spassky	Soviet Union	18 years
1958	Bobby Fischer	United States	15 years, 6 months, 1 day
1991	Judit Polgár	Hungary	15 years, 4 months, 28 days
1994	Péter Lékó	Hungary	14 years, 4 months, 22 days
1997	Étienne Bacrot	France	14 years, 2 months, 0 days
1997	Ruslan Ponomariov	Ukraine	14 years, 0 months, 17 days
1999	Bu Xiangzhi	China	13 years, 10 months, 13 days
2002	Sergey Karjakin	Ukraine	12 years, 7 months, 0 days

This is a list of the players to become Grandmasters before their 15th birthday:

No.	Player	Country	Age
1.	Sergey Karjakin	Ukraine	12 years, 7 months, 0 days
2.	Parimarjan Negi	India	13 years, 4 months, 22 days
3.	Magnus Carlsen	Norway	13 years, 4 months, 27 days
4.	Wei Yi	China	13 years, 8 months, 23 days
5.	Bu Xiangzhi	China	13 years, 10 months, 13 days
6.	Samuel Sevian	United States	13 years, 10 months, 27 days
7.	Richárd Rapport	Hungary	13 years, 11 months, 6 days
8.	Teimour Radjabov	Azerbaijan	14 years, 0 months, 14 days
9.	Ruslan Ponomariov	Ukraine	14 years, 0 months, 17 days
10.	Wesley So	Philippines	14 years, 1 month, 28 days
11.	Étienne Bacrot	France	14 years, 2 months, 0 days
12.	Illya Nyzhnyk	Ukraine	14 years, 3 months, 2 days
13.	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	France	14 years, 4 months
14.	Péter Lékó	Hungary	14 years, 4 months, 22 days
15.	Jorge Cori	Peru	14 years, 5 months, 15 days
16.	Hou Yifan	China	14 years, 6 months, 16 days
17.	Jeffery Xiong	United States	14 years, 6 months, 25 days
18.	Anish Giri	Russia	14 years, 7 months, 2 days
19.	Yuriy Kuzubov	Ukraine	14 years, 7 months, 12 days
20.	Dariusz Świercz	Poland	14 years, 7 months, 29 days
21.	Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	Vietnam	14 years, 10 months
22.	Daniil Dubov	Russia	14 years, 11 months, 14 days
23.	Ray Robson	United States	14 years, 11 months, 16 days
24.	Fabiano Caruana	Italy	14 years, 11 months, 20 days
25.	Yu Yangyi	China	14 years, 11 months, 23 days

Here are the holders of the record for the youngest ever female to become a grandmaster (not to be confused with the lesser Woman Grandmaster title):

Year	Player	Country	Age
1978	Nona Gaprindashvili	Soviet Union	37 years
1984	Maia Chiburdanidze	Soviet Union	23 years
1991	Susan Polgar	Hungary	21 years
1991	Judit Polgár	Hungary	15 years, 4 months
2002	Humpy Koneru	India	15 years 1 month
2008	Hou Yifan	China	14 years, 6 months