Game’s top tier growing younger
Saturday, October 31, 2009 3:11 AM
By SHELBY LYMAN
When Bobby Fischer gained worldwide fame by earning the grandmaster title in 1958 — at the age of 15 years, six months and one day — the preconceptions of many were shattered.
Chess, the public learned, was not a game only for older people and bearded savants; young people played, and at least one of them — a teenager — was among the best in the world.
Since then, 22 other young men and women have surpassed the American’s benchmark. The youngest is Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine, who earned the grandmaster title at 12 years and 7 months in 2002.
It’s a measure of Fischer’s achievement that it has taken 51 years for a modest number of exceptional talents to supersede him, despite the significant advantages they possess, including computer databases and Internet play.
Precocity is a marker of future greatness: Five of the top 20 players today are among those who have bettered Fischer’s record.
I, therefore, look forward to the future efforts of two Americans: 21-year-old Hikaru Nakamura and 15-year-old Ray Robson, both of whom became grandmasters earlier than Fischer.
Both will be tested in the months ahead by world-class competition.
Source: http://www.columbusdispatch.com
Soon, there’ll be GMs at age 10 and 11.
Best Luck to Hikaru and Ray!
Fischer was the best!
I don’t want to criticize ray and hikaru, for whose play i have the greater appreciation, but when fischer earned the grandmaster title, he dit it by being amongst the top players in portoroz and was ahead of great players like bronstein. He was already amongst the very very best in the world, that’s what meant his grandmaster title.
Ray and Hikaru have become “common gms” at the age of 15, with enormous technology, which does not exactly mean they are amongst the top 10 at 15 years old.