Sergey Karjakin

Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin (Russian: Серге́й Алекса́ндрович Каря́кин, Russian pronunciation: [sʲɪrˈɡʲej ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ kɐˈrʲakʲɪn]; born 12 January 1990) is a Russian (formerly representing Ukraine) chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he holds the record for the world's youngest ever grandmaster, having qualified for the title at the age of 12 years and 7 months.

Karjakin learned to play chess at the age of 5. He won the European U10 Chess Championship in 1999, and was World U12 Chess Champion in 2001. He earned the international master title at age 11, and was awarded his grandmaster title in 2003. He represented Ukraine at the Chess Olympiad in 2004, winning team and individual gold. He competed in two more Chess Olympiads for Ukraine, and won the Corus chess tournament in 2009, before transferring to Russia. He has since represented Russia four times in the Chess Olympiad, winning individual gold in 2010. He also won team gold with Russia at the 2013 World Team Chess Championship.^[1]

Karjakin won the 2012 World Rapid Chess Championship, and the Norway Chess tournament in 2013 and 2014. He competed at the Candidates Tournament 2014, placing second. He won the Chess World Cup 2015, thus qualifying for the Candidates Tournament 2016. He won the tournament and earned the right to challenge for the World Chess Championship. In November 2016, he lost the championship match to Magnus Carlsen in the rapid tiebreaks after drawing 6–6 in the classical games. He won the 2016 World Blitz Chess Championship. He participated in the candidates tournament again in 2018, placing third.