Praggnanandhaa International Master At 10

At the age of 10 years, 10 months and 19 days, R Praggnanandhaa became the youngest IM in chess history. The Indian boy scored his third IM norm and got his rating over 2400 at the KiiT International Chess Festival in Bhubaneswar, India.

R Praggnanandhaa finished the KiiT International Chess Festival in shared 10th place with a score of 7.0/10. His performance rating was 2536, more than enough for what was his third international master norm. Since he gained 46.8 Elo points to reach a new rating of 2415, his IM title is a formality.

Praggnanandhaa scored his first norm in February of this year in Cannes, France. A month later another norm followed, in the B-tournament of the Aeroflot Open. There, he needed a win in the last round and he did so in style:

Here's an interview with Praggnanandhaa by Sagar Shah after this game:

In April of this year the talented Indian boy won the gold medal in the U12 section of the Asian Youth Championship. He also won the Asian U8 Championship in 2013 and the World U10 Championship in 2015.

By becoming IM at the age of 10 years and 10 months, Praggnanandhaa broke the previous record held by Sergey Karjakin, who claimed the IM titled aged 11 years and 11 months. Karjakin secured the GM title a year later and is still the youngest player ever to do so. Currently the youngest grandmaster is Sam Sevian of the USA.

Here's the full list of players to become a grandmaster before their 15th birthday:

Youngest GMs

Both Chessbase and the Indian Express have the story, the latter with this nice paragraph:

 “But when R Praggnanandhaa did get home, he ran to his father, offered him a hurried hug and then plonked himself on his favourite spot on the couch to watch cartoons on television. “Just like any other 10-year-old,” sighs Rameshbabu.