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Malcolm Pein on…Brilliant Young Mind

Malcolm Pein

July 15, 2021

Abhimanyu Mishra from New Jersey has become the youngest grandmaster of all time, at the age of 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days. Mishra broke the record of Sergey Karjakin set back in 2002, when the future world championship challenger was aged 12 years and seven months.

Already the youngest ever International Master, Mishra was hampered in his quest for the GM title by the pandemic but relocated with his family to Hungary in April to play in a number of GM norm tournaments. His first norm came at the April Vezerkepzo tournament, with the second arising at the May edition of the famous First Saturday tournament in Budapest.

Talking to Chess24, Mishra revealed that he works on chess “at least 12 hours a day”, not least studying intensively on the Chessable website. He has also received some coaching from Indian number two, Pentala Harikrishna.

Mishra obtained his third and final norm with victory over the Indian GM Leon Mendonca at the Vezerkepzo GM Mix event.

He has been awarded a place at the FIDE World Cup in Sochi.

B. Souhardo – A. Mishra

Budapest 2021

French Defense

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.dxc5 Nf6 6.Ngf3 Qxc5 7.Bd3 Nbd7 8.O-O Be7 9.Nb3 (Just four days later, the same players met again, and White improved with 9.a4!? O-O 10.a5 Qc7 11.Nb3 Nc5 12.Nxc5 Bxc5 13.Bg5 with an edge). 9…Qc7 10.Bg5 O-O 11.Qe2 b6 12.Rfe1 Bb7 13.Bh4 Nd5 (13…Bd6!? 14.Nbd4 a6 is quite a pleasant setup for Black) 14.Bxe7?! (14.Bg3! gives White an edge, since Black’s pieces are a little loose after 14…Nf4?! 15.Qd2 Bd6 16. Be4! and 14…Bd6?! 15.Ng5! launches a strong attack) 14…Nxe7 15.Nbd4 Nf6? (15…Nd5! is fine for Black)

16.Nxe6! fxe6 17.Qxe6+ Rf7 18.Ng5 Bd5 19.Qe5? (A bad oversight. 19.Qe3 Ng6 20.Nxf7 Bxf7 21.Rad1 would have left White well centralised and clearly better) 19…Nc6! 20.Bxh7+ (There’s nothing better) 20…Nxh7 21.Qxd5 Nxg5 22.Qxg5 Raf8 23.f3 Nd4 24.Rac1 Qc4 25.b3 Qc3 26.Re4 How did Black force immediate resignation? (Highlight the area below the diagram to see the answer)

Answer: 26…Qxf3! 0-1 If 27.Ree1 Qf2+ 28.Kh1 Qf1+ and mates or 27.gxf3 Nxf3+ 28.Kg2 Nxg5.

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Malcolm Pein

Malcolm Pein is a British International Master, chess organizer, author and journalist. He was a child prodigy and a former British Junior Champion. He qualified for the International Master title in 1985. Malcolm is a distinguished writer, journalist and editor. He has been a chess correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for over 30 years, has written numerous chess books and is the Executive Editor of CHESS Magazine. In 1992, he founded the London Chess Centre, a games store in central London and the UK's only chess shop. He is also the founder and CEO of Chess in Schools and Communities, a UK charity whose aim is to introduce chess to state schools and has taught the game to over 250,000 children since its inception in 2009. Malcolm is also well-known for his chess event management. He was responsible for the pre-planning of the World Chess Championship match between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik in London 2000. In 2002 he was appointed as Technical Director of the 'Brains in Bahrain' match between Vladimir Kramnik and the computer program Fritz. In 2009, Malcolm devised and organized the 1st London Chess Classic - the UK's first world-class elite all-play-all tournament since the 1980s which ran annually until 2019. Malcolm is also very active with the English Chess Federation. In 2016, he was appointed as the Manager and Captain of the England national team. He was also appointed as English Chess Federation delegate to the European Chess Union and FIDE and is the Director of International Chess. In 2018, he also stood for the post of Deputy President of FIDE. In 2021, Malcolm joined the ranks of Chessable authors by bringing the highlights of his column in the Daily Telegraph in the form of an interactive Chessable course, titled Telegraph Tuesday. Profile photograph © Lennart Ootes