Viswanathan Anand lauds 12-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra: Congrats on becoming the youngest Grandmaster

Chess legend Viswanathan Anand took to social media to congratulate Indian-origin boy Abhimanyu Mishra, who became the youngest ever Grandmaster in the sport after scoring his third GM norm in Budapest on Wednesday.

The New-Jersey born Abhimanyu Mishra, who is 12 years and 4 months, broke the 19-year-old record set by Russian GM Sergey Karjakin in 2002 to become the youngest Grandmaster. Karjakin had secured the Grandmaster title at the age of 12 years and 7 months.

Notably, Mishra achieved the feat at the April Vezerkepzo tournament and the May 2021 First Saturday tournament.

“On Wednesday, Mishra won the biggest game of his short but sweet career so far. He defeated the 15-year-old Indian GM Leon Luke Mendonca with the black pieces, securing a performance rating higher than 2600 over nine rounds,” stated an official release on Chess.com.

Mishra, born on February 5, 2009, secured the highest title in chess by defeating 15-year-old Indian GM Leon Luke Mendonca with the black piece and was congratulated by five-time world chess champion Anand on Twitter.

“Great results for Indian chess! @NihalSarin @ArjunErigaisi and a big congrats to the Indian origin Abhimanyu Misra on becoming the youngest GM! Nihal is part of the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy and Arjun is a player I follow closely and play training games with,” Anand tweeted.

Great results for Indian chess! @NihalSarin @ArjunErigaisi and a big congrats to the Indian origin Abhimanyu Misra on becoming the youngest GM! Nihal is part of the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy and Arjun is a player I follow closely and play training games with.

— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) July 1, 2021

KARKAJIN WISHES ABHIMANYU

Mishra was also congratulated by Karjakin, who was a little dejected at his record being broken but wished the boy the best for a successful future.

“Somehow I am quite philosophical about this because I felt like it has been almost 20 years and it is really too much! It had to be broken. Sooner or later I was sure that it would happen. I was completely sure that one of the Indian guys would do it much earlier. Somehow I was very lucky that it didn’t happen,” Karjakin was quoted as saying by Chess.com.

“Yes, I am a little sad that I lost the record, I don’t want to lie, but at the same time I can only congratulate him and it’s no problem. I hope that he will go on to become one of the top chess players and it will be just a nice start to his big career. I wish him all the best.”