The Junior achievements of each of the Candidates.

Hello, while all the Candidates are grown men, the tournament has been getting younger and many chess prodigies are emerging. Today we will look at what each of the Candidates did in their youth in terms of their chess achievement.

Fabiano Caruana:

Age started playing: 5, he started to learn at an afterschool chess program.

Age he became a Grandmaster: 14 and 11 months, which is the youngest in both the US and Italy.

Junior titles/championships: He won the Italian Championship at age 15.

Ding Liren:

Age started playing: 4, he started at a local chess club.

Age he became a Grandmaster: 16, His final norm was from the Chinese chess championship.

Junior titles/championships: At 16 he won the Chinese chess championship.

He tied for 1st in both the U-10 Junior championships and the U-12 Junior championships.

Alexander Grischuk:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Grischuk#/media/File:Grischuk,Alexandr_1992_Duisburg.jpg

Age started playing: Unkown but estimates around 6.

Age he became a Grandmaster:  17 He got his norms and then in the same year he got to the semifinal of the FIDE Chess championship.

Junior titles/championships: He got second in the in the 1992 U-10 world chess championships.He also got 3rd in the Disney Rapid chess championships.

Ian Nepomniachtchi:

Age he started playing: 4.5 years old, his grandfather taught him.

Age he became a Grandmaster: at age 17.

Junior championships/titles: He won the World Junior Championship in 2002. He also won 3 European Championships as a Junior for his age group.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave:

Age he started playing: He started at age 4.

Age he became a Grandmaster: 14 years 4 months

Junior championships/titles: 4 Junior French titles from U-8 to U-20. He also got second in the U-14 world chess championship when he was 12.

Wang Hao

Age he started playing: at age 6 he learned chess at a youth center.

Age he became a Grandmaster: 16 he skipped Master and International master.

Junior championships/titles: 3rd in the U-10 Junior world championships. Multiple gold medals for the U-16 Chinese team.

Anish Giri:

Age he started playing: Age 6 .

Age he became a Grandmaster:14 years and 7 months.

Junior championships/titles: At 14 he won the Dutch championship. He also won other smaller championships as a Junior.

Kirill Alekseenko:

Age he started playing: 4 years old.

Age he became a Grandmaster: He became a grandmaster at 17.

Junior championships/titles: U-14 world champion. He also won the U-10 European championship.

Thanks for reading I hope you found this interesting!!.