Youngest grandmaster

Sergey Karjakin, born in 1990, became a grandmaster at the age of 12 years, 7 months. On August 20, 2002 he fulfilled his 3rd and final GM norm at the international tournament in Sudak. The youngest American grandmaster is Hikaru Namamura, who earned the title at the age of 15 years, 2 months. The youngest female grandmaster is Koneru Humpy, who became a grandmaster at the age of 15 years, 1 month, and 27 days.

Players that became GMs before age 15: Sergey Karjakin, Parimarjan Negi, Magnus Carlsen, Bu Xiangzhi, Teimour Radjabov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Etienne Bacrot, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Peter Leko, Yuriy Kuzubov, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Fabiano Caruana

Youngest FIDE master

Etienne Bacrot, born in 1983, became the youngest FIDE master a the age of 10.

Most tournaments won

Anatoly Karpov has won over 160 chess tournaments, more than anyone else in history.

Highest Elo rating

In the July 1999 and the January 2000 FIDE rating list, Garry Kasparov had an Elo rating of 2851. In July 2005, Judit Polgar had an Elo rating of 2735, the highest for any woman.

Most drawing Grandmaster

Ulf Andersson of Sweden has drawn 74% of his games against top-level opposition, winning 10%, and losing 16%.

Youngest gold medallist

Judit Polgar won a gold medal in the 1988 Saloniki chess olympiad at the age of 11. In 2000, Alexander Grischuk won a gold medal at the age of 17 in the Istanbul Olympiad. In 1992, Vladimir Kramnik won a gold medal at the age of 17 in Manila Olympiad

Nice post, skarthi4you! Didn't Sanan Sjugiov become a grandmaster before 15? I'm pretty sure he's the youngest/highest ranked player in the world. He's like 16 or 17 now, and beat Carlsen this year! In fact Carlsen may have to deal with him in years to come

California Boy, 9, Becomes Youngest U.S. Chess Master

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/crosswords/chess/19chess.html