In the world of chess, we keep hearing this term GM. So, a few weeks back, we got the youngest ever GM in the world, Abhimanyu Mishra from the USA at an astonishing age of 12 years 4 months & 25 days. This broke Sergey Karjakin’s record which had stood since 2002.
What exactly does it mean? GM i.e., Grand Master is the highest norm awarded by Chess Federation viz. FIDE. Typically, top GMs battle for the most elite chess tournaments, coveted title and the most important one – World Chess Championship.
Here is an interesting analysis on how recent world champions over the last 50-60 years have done. What age do they become a GM? When did they appear for their first world championship match? When they became world champion? Was it at the first attempt or they came back again and became world champion?Let’s first look at all world chess champions Here is a quick look to see a bit of the past in a nutshell for 9 most recent world chess champions.
Just for reference, Tal & Petrosian is the era of the 1960s & from there right up to Carlsen who is World Champion from 2013 till now.
There can be so many aspects and perspective by looking at these data points –
- If we observe the age of these legends becoming GM has seen sharp movement from 20+ years old to 15+ years age and in the current time frame 2020 and onwards it’s becoming 12-13 years
- Carlsen when appeared for the world championship match against Anand in 2013 was GM for already for 9 years. Does this enable a player ready for a match?
- Anand against Kasparov in 1993 was 7 years from the GM title and with a limited chess circuit then, many experts believed the world championship match came too early for Anand then!
(It’s in order from 1st to 16th World Chess Champion! If you know the names, Google is always there!)
- Fischer was GM very early, did dominate the chess world during 1965-1972 ruthlessly, but interestingly, he became world champion 14 years after becoming GM
- Perhaps world championship cycles also play a role here?
- Becoming GM early does give more exposure and preparedness for a chess player to crack the world championship title?
- How much role mental readiness has for a GM to go for a world title?
- Perhaps, the age of 13 to 20 where children just focus on school and college graduation is the most important phase for a chess player to reach at the top of the game?
- If you don’t get a crack at a world championship match early on in your career, does it create a block in a chess player’s mind?
Just think about it, there can be so many such perspectives that can come up. Many are becoming GM at an early age, say between 13 to 15 years, the next 5-7 years are vital to stamp yourself on the world chess map!
I leave you with quote by Vishy Anand himself on current times & Chess.
