A chess prodigy is a child who can beat experienced adult players, and even Masters, at chess. Expectations can be high for chess prodigies. While some become World Champions, others show little or no progress in adulthood.

Early chess prodigies

Early chess prodigies were Paul Morphy (1837–1884) and José Raúl Capablanca (1888–1942), both of whom won matches against strong adult opponents at the age of 12, and Samuel Reshevsky (1911–1992), who was giving simultaneous exhibitions at the age of six.^[1] Morphy went on to be unofficial World Champion (before the official title existed), Capablanca became the third World Champion, and Reshevsky—while never attaining the title—was amongst the top few players in the world for many decades.

List of youngest grandmasters

One measure of chess prodigies (since 1950, when the title was introduced) is the age at which they gain the Grandmaster title. Below are players who have held the record for youngest grandmaster. The record has been held by Sergey Karjakin (then Ukraine) since 2002. The age listed is the age at which they qualified for the title. This is not equal to the age at which they officially became Grandmasters, because GM titles can only be awarded at FIDE congresses.

Note: all players are listed by their nationality at the time of gaining the title, not their current or later nationality.

Year	Player	Country	Age
1950	David Bronstein	Soviet Union	26 years
1952	Tigran Petrosian	Soviet Union	23 years
1955	Boris Spassky	Soviet Union	18 years
1958	Bobby Fischer	United States	15 years, 6 months, 1 day
1991	Judit Polgár	Hungary	15 years, 4 months, 28 days
1994	Péter Lékó	Hungary	14 years, 4 months, 22 days
1997	Étienne Bacrot	France	14 years, 2 months, 0 days
1997	Ruslan Ponomariov	Ukraine	14 years, 0 months, 17 days
1999	Bu Xiangzhi	China	13 years, 10 months, 13 days
2002	Sergey Karjakin	Ukraine	12 years, 7 months, 0 days

This is a list of the players who became Grandmasters before their 15th birthday.

No.	Player	Country	Age	Birth year
1.	Sergey Karjakin	Ukraine	12 years, 7 months, 0 days	1990
2.	Gukesh D	India	12 years, 7 months, 17 days	2006
3.	Javokhir Sindarov	Uzbekistan	12 years, 10 months, 5 days	2005
4.	Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu	India	12 years, 10 months, 13 days	2005
5.	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	Uzbekistan	13 years, 1 month, 11 days	2004
6.	Parimarjan Negi	India	13 years, 4 months, 22 days	1993
7.	Magnus Carlsen	Norway	13 years, 4 months, 27 days	1990
8.	Wei Yi	China	13 years, 8 months, 23 days[2]	1999
9.	Bu Xiangzhi	China	13 years, 10 months, 13 days	1985
10.	Samuel Sevian	United States	13 years, 10 months, 27 days[3]	2000
11.	Richárd Rapport	Hungary	13 years, 11 months, 6 days[4]	1996
12.	Teimour Radjabov	Azerbaijan	14 years, 0 months, 14 days	1987
13.	Ruslan Ponomariov	Ukraine	14 years, 0 months, 17 days	1983
14.	Nihal Sarin	India	14 years, 1 month, 1 day	2004
15.	Awonder Liang	United States	14 years, 1 month, 20 days[5][6]	2003
16.	Wesley So	Philippines	14 years, 1 month, 28 days[7]	1993
17.	Étienne Bacrot	France	14 years, 2 months, 0 days	1983
18.	Illya Nyzhnyk	Ukraine	14 years, 3 months, 2 days[8]	1996
19.	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	France	14 years, 4 months, 6 days[9]	1990
20.	Péter Lékó	Hungary	14 years, 4 months, 22 days	1979
21.	Jorge Cori	Peru	14 years, 5 months, 15 days[10]	1995
22.	Hou Yifan	China	14 years, 6 months, 16 days[11]	1994
23.	Jeffery Xiong	United States	14 years, 6 months, 25 days[12]	2000
24.	Anish Giri	Russia	14 years, 7 months, 2 days[13]	1994
25.	Yuriy Kuzubov	Ukraine	14 years, 7 months, 12 days[14]	1990
26.	Bogdan-Daniel Deac	Romania	14 years, 7 months, 27 days[15]	2001
27.	Dariusz Świercz	Poland	14 years, 7 months, 29 days	1994
28.	Alireza Firouzja	Iran	14 years, 8 months, 2 days	2003
29.	Aryan Chopra	India	14 years, 9 months, 3 days[16]	2001
30.	Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn	Vietnam	14 years, 9 months, 22 days[17]	1990
31.	Kirill Shevchenko	Ukraine	14 years, 9 months, 23 days	2002
32.	Arjun Erigaisi	India	14 years, 11 months, 13 days	2003
33.	Daniil Dubov	Russia	14 years, 11 months, 14 days[18]	1996
34.	Ray Robson	United States	14 years, 11 months, 16 days[19]	1994
35.	Fabiano Caruana	Italy	14 years, 11 months, 20 days[20]	1992
36.	Yu Yangyi	China	14 years, 11 months, 23 days[21]	1994

Here are the holders of the record for the youngest ever female to become a grandmaster (not to be confused with the lesser Woman Grandmaster title):

Year	Player	Country	Age
1978	Nona Gaprindashvili	Soviet Union	37 years
1984	Maia Chiburdanidze	Soviet Union	23 years
1991	Susan Polgar	Hungary	21 years
1991	Judit Polgár	Hungary	15 years, 4 months
2002	Humpy Koneru	India	15 years 1 month
2008	Hou Yifan	China	14 years, 6 months[22]

• Edward Winter, Chess Prodigies (2005, updated in 2006 and 2007)
• Chessbase news about young Grandmasters
• Youngest Chess Player in India Set World Record
• Smallest Chess Player Chess Tournament Set World Record