Abhimanyu Mishra became the world’s youngest Grandmaster at the age of 12 in 2021. He still has that record. He is also the youngest player to defeat a reigning World champion. Excerpts from an interview Abhimanyu gave The Hindu in Bengaluru, where he played for PBG Alaskan Knights in the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League:

How do you look back at your journey of becoming the youngest Grandmaster?

It was part of a bucket list. It was in the middle of the pandemic. Everything in the world had shut down, and I desperately wanted to break this record. I went eight months without playing any tournament. Me and my dad decided to take this insurmountable risk. I am not sure if I would take the same risk today. We went to a different country in the middle of a global pandemic, and if either of us got the virus, we would be admitted to a hospital. It would have been an absolute nightmare.

But despite all odds, we decided to take the risk. Taking the risk was one thing, but getting the title was another. I had a rating of about 2410 and no Grandmaster norms (a player needs three). I think I scored norms from two of the first three events, and after that I hit a dry streak. I had to hit the rating of 2500 for the Grandmaster title. I was missing the final norm narrowly. But I made it in cinematic style in the last tournament. I needed to win with black pieces against [India’s] Leon Mendonca, and I did. I was euphoric that this journey was finally over for me and my family.

You had another interesting game with Mendonca here at the GCL. From a winning position, you put your promoted queen on the wrong square, and he claimed it was an illegal move. The arbiter agreed, and you had to replay the move in one second, which was humanly impossible. And you lost on time…

We would have needed an F1 driver to make a move so fast. But I am okay with the claim made by Leon. It is what you do, especially in a team event, where every point matters. I would have done the same. I would do a lot worse actually.

Your thoughts on your maiden GCL?

I actually wanted to play last year, but it did not work out. I had some school obligations and some other stuff, so unfortunately I couldn’t play. I was determined to play this year. I had been following the GCL from the beginning and I found it entertaining. This is a very strong event. We have the world’s best players.

From the spectators’ point of view too, it is an exciting event. It is good to see the audience cheering for you from inside the venue. It actually gives chess a new life in some regard. I loved being part of my GCL team, PBG Alaskan Knights. We had [Viswanathan] Anand, who is one of the greatest players of all time. There was Arjun Erigaisi, who is very creative and an absolute madman. I love his creativity, and the way he can transform any game into a very sharp, complicated minefield.

Arjun also has the ability to take risks, and that is very important. He doesn’t mind being in a minus position, according to the computer, but as long as he is comfortable, he would go for anything. We also had in our team Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, who is very, very strong.

Your thoughts on the other prodigies of Indian chess – Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin?

Gukesh has this ability to bounce back from very tough situations. Yes, his recent form hasn’t been good, but it happens sometimes. I am sure he will be back to his best. Pragg has had a phenomenal run of late, and he is mentally strong, like we saw recently in the Grand Chess Tour final against Fabiano Caruana. He was down by six points at one stage, but came back and won the match. Nihal is very tricky and does well in time scrambles. I have played with him a lot online and he is very, very strong in bullet chess.

You beat Gukesh at the Grand Swiss last year and became the youngest player to beat a defending World champion…

That was a very interesting game. Before the start, I realised I had two options. I was white, yes, so I could play something solid and I could try to press a little bit. But he is very strong, so it was unlikely I would be able to create real chances and win unless he made some very big mistakes.

The other choice was that I could view this game as a unique opportunity to create history. If I had lost that game, no one would have remembered, but it was an opportunity to beat the World champion.

That’s something I wanted to. So I decided to play the sharpest line in my repertoire (Bg5 in the Italian Game) but he has one of the world’s greatest opening preparations. He had come prepared for this, and I was thinking over the board, and I had this idea to sacrifice a piece. You are playing against the World champion, so sacrificing a piece is probably the last thing to do.

But I was trying to replicate what Arjun does in these scenarios. I mean, it was fine as long as I understood what I was doing in this position. During the Grand Swiss, I felt like I was sort of untouchable. I was in a very good state of mind, and it was like I would play my best chess.

If Gukesh wanted, he could have made a draw. But he desperately wanted to win. He has this hunger even after becoming World champion… he still wants to kill everybody. This is both a positive and negative trait, but I believe if you want to reach the very top, you need to be like this. You will lose games, but you will win more. In our game, he tried to do this, but it backfired, and I found some very accurate moves. I got to a rook ending, and then clearly converted my advantage.

There doesn’t seem to be as much support for chess in the United States as in a country like India…

Yes, it is quite difficult to be a full-time chess player in the USA. I don’t really have sponsors, but I am a very positive person. I hope things can still work. And yes, the Kasparov Chess Foundation has been supporting me.

Published – September 19, 2026 06:30 am IST

Samarkand is ready: FIDE interim president Viswanathan Anand and AICF president Nitin Narang hand over the Chess Olympiad flame to Sindarov.
| Photo Credit: special arrangement

Cruel game: Abhimanyu’s illegal move against Mendonca proved costly.
| Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN

Sindarov and Venkatesh played at RCB Bar & Cafe on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

It’s a date! Sindarov will contest Gukesh for the world crown from November 25 to December 15.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO

Alireza Firouzja wore down Pranesh in a marathon 79-move game to emerge the only winner on the opening day of the Quantbox Chennai Grand Masters Chess Tournament on Thursday.. Photo:
| Photo Credit: B. VELANKANNI RAJ

Harshavardhan… better late than never
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Fabiano Caruana arrived in Mumbai just a few weeks after winning the United States Chess Championship. In a tournament that featured some of the world’s top players, such as Wesley So and Levon Aronian, he came a clear first. A couple of months before that, he had won the Grand Chess Tour. Still, the World No. 3 isn’t exactly pleased with his year.

Caruana is also the third-highest-rated player in history, behind Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov. He had challenged Carlsen for the World title in 2018 but lost out in the tie-breaks. He is now eyeing another crack at the World Championship: he will be playing the Candidates in March-April in Cyprus. Before that gruelling event, where he has been a regular since 2016, he played in the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League for the first time. 

And he led Alpine SG Pipers to the title at Mumbai’s iconic Royal Opera House, with a commanding win in the final over Triveni Continental Kings, the champion in both previous editions. Excerpts from an exclusive interview Caruana gave The Hindu on a cool December morning, by the poolside of Trident Hotel, just a stone’s throw away from the Arabian Sea:  

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Your thoughts on your maiden Global Chess League?

It was nice. I wanted to play previous years, but there were always some scheduling issues. So I was excited when I got contacted for this year’s league. And actually, I didn’t really expect it, because I knew all the teams had their players, but one spot opened up for this team. We have two of the best players in the world [Anish Giri and R. Praggnanandhaa], along with many-time World champion for women [Hou Yifan] and one of the best junior players in the world [Leon Mendonca]. And Nino [Batsiashvili] is also a great player. I think the GCL is a very interesting tournament. It is nice to have so many strong players [14 of the world’s top 15] in one place. It took a while to get used to the time control [increment of two seconds after the 40th move].

How do you look back at your wins at the Grand Chess Tour and the US national championship, which you won for the fourth year in a row?

Those two were my major successes this year. Besides that, it wasn’t a great year, but of course that does brighten it quite a bit. The US championship is always very strong for a national tournament, similar to what the Soviet Union championship used to be. This year, it was very close.  

Your compatriot Hikaru Nakamura says he has already started preparing for the Candidates. What about you?

Yeah, well, definitely thought has already gone into preparation for the tournament. The concrete preparation hasn’t really started yet, but it will start pretty soon.  

How close do you think it is going to be in Cyprus? You must be an expert on the Candidates, having played in every edition since 2016.  

Every time it is close. The only question is how close. I think the only exception was in 2022, when Ian [Nepomniachtchi] was clearly first, but that was also a strange year because the runner-up [Ding Liren] ended up qualifying as well.

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I was speaking to So a few days ago, and he picked you as the favourite. Who do you think could be your toughest rivals?

Anyone potentially. By rating, it is clear: it is Hikaru and Praggnanandhaa. And Anish, as well, is up there because he recently also gained a lot of rating. There are other players who can also be dangerous.  

Somebody like Wei Yi, or Javokhir Sindarov…

Wei is such a strong player, though it is his first time in the Candidates. He is a very capable player, for sure. 

Talking of the Candidates, are you happy with the way the players are selected? 

aI think the only change I would really make is to change the qualification for the spot given to the highest-rated player. Let’s say you have to play opponents that have an average rating of 2600 Elo rating, for example. But Hikaru has deserved his spot, for sure.  

Now Candidates slots are also going to be filled from the newly announced Total Chess World Championship…

I generally don’t like the name of that tournament. We already have the total World Championship, you know, the classical World Championship. That is the ultimate goal for a player. Then you have this new world championship and then the confusion.

A few years ago, you had made an interesting study of the young Indian players. Was Gukesh moving ahead of the pack and winning the World title a surprise for you?  

Well, when I did this in 2022, Gukesh was still very young, clearly going to be very strong, but I think he was a little bit less known compared to Arjun [Erigiasi] or Praggnanandhaa. I said Arjun would be the first to cross the 2800 rating, and it ended up being correct, but Gukesh has been the most successful, at least currently, of the bunch. It was hard to predict, and we didn’t predict, of course, that he would be World champion.  

Gukesh and Pragg have been the most accomplished. But Arjun is also very accomplished and has had the highest rating. In terms of his chess, I think what impresses most people is that it feels like he is kind of a very natural player. While Gukesh is a very prepared player, very focused, very professional. His mentality is his strongest suit. Pragg is also very focused, very prepared. He works very hard, which is very good. It is going to take him far along with his talent. And this year, he’s won a lot of tournaments. When a player can win tournaments, not just keep a high rating, but actually win — that is always a very good sign for them.

You are hugely popular here. Are you getting recognised in India more than back home?

Probably yes, I mean even at the airport I was getting recognised a few times. It happens in the US, but usually more in the major cities, like New York for example. Here you can see the interest in chess from the public.

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Your earliest memories of chess?

I have some very early childhood memories from when I was five, playing my first tournament. I grew up in New York, where there was a vibrant chess scene then. That was where the main hub for chess in the US was and now it has changed a lot. It’s gone to St. Louis. You know I also have some fond memories from my teenage years when we moved to Europe and I started to travel to get better and chase my norms

Which other sports do you follow?

Tennis.  

Any favourite players?

Currently Alcaraz. Of course, I have liked the big guys of the past — Djokovic, Nadal and Federer. All three of them have been great, and it is hard to choose. And Agassi as well. His book ‘Open’ got me interested in tennis in the first place. I have always enjoyed watching Agassi.