It’s a great sign for chess

Catch ’em young: Chess prodigies on the rise
By Sandip G | ENS – CHENNAI
Published: 20th November 2013 01:20 AM
Last Updated: 20th November 2013 01:20 AM

At 13, Sachin Tendulkar was just another springy kid at Ramakant Achrekar’s academy. At the same age, Lionel Messi was still struggling with growth hormone deficiency. It took them another two years to tangibly portent their precocious talent, before the often-weighty tag of “prodigy” was attached.

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By 13, though, Magnus Carlsen was already a prodigy, both in terms of sheer potential and the strict definition it holds in chess parlance. In most others sports, the polysyllabic word is attached to any precociously talented youngster, most often a teen. It’s mostly based on a wide set of intangibles. Like for instance in cricket, it’s not just a youngster’s volume of runs or the number of wickets that counts as the criteria. But his strokes, his technique and temperament are also evaluated before he is reckoned a prodigy.

Not so in chess. The yardstick here is at what age they gain the Grandmaster title. Surprisingly, Carlsen is not the youngest to have completed the norm. It belongs to Ukraine’s Sergey Karjakin, who accomplished this when he was only 12 years and seven months. Carlsen is, in fact, third on the list (13 years, four months and 22 days), after Karjakin and India’s Parimarjan Negi (13 years, four months and 22 days).

At the Reykjavik Open in Iceland early this year, Wei Yi, a 13-year-old from China, completed the requirements for the Grandmaster title. In doing so, he became the fourth-youngest Grandmaster ever. It is a remarkable accomplishment, but not as remarkable as it once was. After Bobby Fischer became a Grandmaster at 15 in 1958, breaking the old record by three years, it was 1991 before Judit Polgar bettered his mark.

Since then, 33 other players including Carlsen have earned the title at a younger age than Fischer and as many five have bettered Polgar’s mark. “It’s a great sign for chess, more young players, more prodigies and that too from different countries,” opines GM Susan Polgar.

The onslaught of young Grandmasters maybe the result of the development of strong chess computers that can be used for training as well as the creation of databases and the Internet, which give players easy access to tough competition. Since today’s young players have more tools than players of earlier eras, they mature more quickly. Agrees Polgar, “Thanks to the Internet, chess has become more accessible. Even a five-year-old kid knows how to use the net. Also, because chess is so active online, they can learn and play the game even sitting at home,” she explains.

This doesn’t mean chess has become an easy domain. “The resources might have increased. So has the competition. There is a wide range of things available online, but one still has to put a lot of hard work to be a Grandmaster,” she remarks.

Going by the manic rate by which prodigies are popping out, it might not distant before Karjakin’s record is breached. “Perhaps, it will be broken, but not by much. It could be a matter of months or maybe days,” reckons Susan. Hence, the question of who is a chess prodigy may need to be rethought because there are many more elite young players than there once were.

Source: http://newindianexpress.com