Happy Birthday Vinay Bhat
Three Grandmaster were born "Today in Chess History:"
- Mikheil Mchedlishvili of Georgia, born 1979, GM 2002.
- Vinay Bhat, of the Untied States, born 1984, GM 2008.
- Aryan Tari of Norway, born 1999, GM 2016.
Bhat first learned to play chess at the age of 6. His mother taught him how to play. He and his brother started playing in the Kolty Chess Club in Campbell every Thursday night. Bhat spent his early years studying the games of Paul Morphy and José Raúl Capablanca. Bhat studied chess with GM Gregory Kaidanov.
At 10 years and 176 days old, Bhat became the youngest national master in U.S. Chess History (the record has since been broken). Then at the age of 15 years and 10 months, Bhat became an International Master, again the youngest ever in U.S. history to that point (again the record has since been broken).
After taking an extended break from chess to focus on High School and College, Bhat began to play regularly again in 2008. On April 22, 2008, it was announced that Vinay was awarded the 2008 Samford Fellowship. This fellowship was created to "identify and assist the best American chessmasters under the age of twenty-five by providing top-level coaching, strong competition and access to study materials."
Bhat was awarded with the title of International Grandmaster in October 2008 when he crossed 2500 FIDE, with his three Grandmaster norms coming from Qingdao (China, 2002), Balaguer (Spain, 2006), and Balaguer (Spain, 2007)
