Meet Abhimanyu Mishra, the world's youngest chess grandmaster

Abhimanyu, who hails from New Jersey, US, defeated 15-year-old Indian GM Leon Luke Mendonca with the black pieces and, in the process, broke grandmaster Sergey Karjakin's 19-year-old record. 

Image Courtesy: Abhimanyu Mishra - World of Chess/Facebook

Twelve-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra entered the record books on Wednesday as the youngest chess grandmaster in history.

Abhimanyu, who hails from New Jersey, US, defeated 15-year-old Indian GM Leon Luke Mendonca with the black pieces and, in the process, broke grandmaster Sergey Karjakin's 19-year-old record. 

Karjakin won the grandmaster title at the age of 12 years and seven months. Abhimanyu, born on February 5, 2009, obtained the title at 12 years, four months, and 25 days.

Karjakin told the Chess.com website that it was about time that his record was broken. 

He said sooner or later, he was sure that it would happen and that "one of the Indian guys" would do it much earlier. 

Wishing Abhimanyu the best, Karjakin hoped that the former would go on to become one of the top chess players.

Legendary Indian chess player Vishwanathan Anand took to Twitter to congratulate Abhimanyu on becoming the youngest grandmaster.

Abhimanyu thanked his coach Surya Sekhar Ganguly on Twitter. He said, "2021 started really well for me with the launch of the online Pro Chess Training, and it helped big time to cover up the time wasted because of the pandemic in this difficult chase."

Abhimanyu scored both his first and second GM norms, playing back-to-back tournaments in Budapest, Hungary.

Notably, Abhimanyu had broken the record of India's R Praggnanandhaa to become the youngest international master when he was ten years, nine months and 20 days old in 2019.