American prodigy closes in on Karjakin’s youngest grandmaster record

Abhimanyu Mishra, 12, is on his way to becoming a chess grandmaster. He has completed two norms in the compact qualification process and has one to go. The record for the youngest grandmaster ever is held by Russia’s Sergey Karjakin who qualified for the accolade at 12 years, 7 months. (Photo: Sagar Shah / Chessbase)  

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, “a prodigy is a child who, by about age 10, performs at the level of a highly trained adult in a particular sphere of activity or knowledge. In this sense, neither high intelligence nor eccentric skills by themselves qualify a child as a prodigy. Rather, it is the capacity to perform in a recognized area of endeavour in such a way as to receive broad acclaim that defines the prodigy.”