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

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

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

Sealing it: Aswath claimed the title after winning the Pune International Round-Robin chess tournament.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Aravindh Chithambaram is rated by India’s most successful chess coach R.B. Ramesh as the country’s most talented player since Viswanathan Anand. He began well enough, and came up with some incredible performances, but, later on, was overshadowed by a bunch of other Indian prodigies that took world chess by storm. Over the last couple of years, Aravindh has finally shown what he is capable of: last year, he rose to World No. 11. There is time still for the 26-year-old to do even better. Excerpts from an interview:

You finished runner-up at the Prague Chess Festival earlier this year. You had won that event in 2025. That was one of the best performances of your career…

The victory at Prague will remain super special for me. It was such a strong tournament, with players like Anish Giri, Vincent Keymer, Wei Yi and R. Praggnanandhaa. There is this award for the best game in every round, and I wanted to get it even more than the victory. And I finally got the award for the best game of the tournament — for the one against Anish. I was close to winning the title at Prague this year, too. The standard of my chess was actually good this time as well.

You recently became the first Indian to qualify for this year’s Esports World Cup, to be held in Paris in August.

Esports is a huge opportunity for all the professional players like me. Events like these are important for players who make a living out of chess. I am happy that chess is also now part of the Esports community. It is getting bigger and bigger, and it is nice to see that. Over the last two years, I have been trying to focus both on over-the-board tournaments and online events. And I am glad that I have been able to do it.

Do you think chess could become even more mainstream by being part of Esports and could get new fans?

Yes, a lot of people now recognise me because of S8UL Esports [the team he represents].

The first turning point of your career was the Chennai Grandmaster Open tournament, which was held as a sidelight of the World Championship in 2013. You began as the 53rd seed but won the tournament ahead of 21 Grandmasters, at the age of 14.

Yes, and I also secured my first Grandmaster norm, before making even a single IM norm.

And your rating performance was 2728, while your Elo rating was 2335.

Chennai has always been lucky for me, I feel. It was my first big tournament win. And you know, in 2024, I won the Chennai Grand Masters, which changed my life completely. I did not have any expectations. It was such a strong tournament with so many strong players. I only wanted not to finish last; that was the aim basically. But things turned out differently, you know, when I won my game against Arjun [Erigaisi]. Winning the tournament mattered a lot. Because my career had been a bit stagnant till that point.

True. Expectations had been pretty high after you caught the attention of the chess world at a very young age. You had won the National Under-19 Championship when you were 12. Your coach Ramesh has said some big things about you. 

At some point, maybe I did not have any goals. And my mindset had changed a bit.

How did you come out of that situation?

I started doing things like putting in more effort than usual. I think that made a difference.

How much of an influence has Ramesh been in your life? He is the one who took you to Chennai from Madurai.

Yes, I moved to Chennai to get coached by him. He has been a huge support to me, not just in terms of chess. He was the one who got me sponsors that enabled me to play in tournaments abroad, and those events helped me secure my IM title. I remember him posting about me on Twitter and people from various countries contributed. He also got me a scholarship.

And it is not easy for Indian players to improve without support, as there are hardly any elite tournaments in India. The Chennai Grand Masters is an exception. And that tournament was organised as an opportunity for the likes of D. Gukesh and Arjun to fight for the last available slot in the 2024 Candidates. Gukesh went on to win at Chennai, then the Candidates and the World title match against Ding Liren.

Yes, that showed how such strong closed tournaments [instead of open events] could help the Indian players trying to break into the top tier of world chess. We need more tournaments like that, no doubt about it. That will be a big help for several players like me in India. I would also like to have an Indian championship with big prize money and all the top players taking part.

Something like the US Championship?

Yes. I would love to play in such a National Championship in India.

And it would be great from the marketing point of view as well, a Nationals that will have all the best Indian players, including Gukesh, Arjun, Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin. It would be a big opportunity for players like you, S.L. Narayanan, V. Pranav, Leon Mendonca…

Indeed. With so many strong players in India, we should have a National Championship like that.

At the Prague Festival, you defeated Gukesh, who hasn’t been in great form for some time. Most people have now picked Javokhir Sindarov as the favourite in Gukesh’s World title match later this year.

I think we would see an equal fight in that match. Gukesh is going through a tough time. But everyone could go through such a phase, and it is a matter of time before Gukesh gets his form back. But it requires a lot of effort. And there is plenty of time for him to get back into shape. I am not surprised that Sindarov won the Candidates to earn the right to challenge Gukesh. He had a very good run at the World Cup in Goa [where he was the champion]. And he played exceptionally well in the Bundesliga, too.

And R. Vaishali will be playing the Women’s World Championship match against Ju Wenjun of China.

It would be an interesting challenge for Vaishali. She has the potential to win the World title. This is her first World title match. She will need a different kind of mindset to play the World Championship match. I hope she manages to do that. It is great that an Indian is playing in both the World title matches.

Published – May 30, 2026 02:43 am IST