There are endless benefits to children learning chess
Capablanca (Cuba), Paul Morphy and Samuel Reshevsky (USA), were masters of the board as very young children, according to chess history. They realized their talent for the game purely by accident.
Usually, child prodigies demonstrate exceptional promise as they mature in the game. Their unusual concentration and willpower matured with age. Magnus Carlsen qualified as a grandmaster at age 13-plus and today he is a celebrated world chess champion. Last year, Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin won, perhaps the strongest Candidates chess tournament to date. He became a grandmaster at age 12-plus.
It is a matter of pride when a nation produces a child prodigy in chess. Additionally, it is more influential when that prodigy becomes a grandmaster earlier than usual. Chess theorists supposedly believe a child grandmaster defines a nation’s intellectual capacity.
Karjakin of Russia became a chess grandmaster at 12 years, 7 months and 0 days, the youngest grandmaster ever in the history of the game. India had held the second spot for the youngest grandmaster ever, until recently, when Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan broke the record at the age of 13 years, one month and 11 days. Nevertheless, not to be outshone, India has invigorated the race and is reaching for the landmark title of youngest grandmaster. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, at age 12plus, is going for it.
The difficulty is that Praggnanandhaa has to establish three grandmaster norms before March 2018. A grandmaster norm is achieved when a competitor successfully engages other grandmasters and demonstrates a plus score at the conclusion of the tournament. For this year, Pragg rated at FIDE 2509 Elo points, played the Tata Steel, the Vlissingen, Isle of Man, Chigorin and St Petersburg grandmaster tournaments but failed to achieve a 2600 grandmaster norm. At the Vlissingen and Isle of Man tournaments, he faded in the crucial closing rounds. For the remainder of the year, Pragg would likely intensify his training and compete in the 2017 World Youth (under-16) chess Olympiad in December in India in preparation for the vital grandmaster tournaments during the first quarter of 2018. Pragg became the youngest International Master ever at 10 years, 10 months and 19 days. Can he become the world’s youngest chess grandmaster?