Youngest titled players (world records)

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Prompted by the norms and records detailed by Leonard Barden here:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/ ... hess-crown

At international level, the boy to watch is Roman Shogdzhiev. The Russian, already world under-eight champion with 11/11 and world under-10 champion with 10/11, achieved his first IM norm last year aged nine, and has just scored his second IM norm at the Baku Open, registering a tournament performance of over 2500. Shogdzhiev is now on track to break the record of Argentina’s “chess Messi” Faustino Oro as the youngest ever international master.

I was musing on the progression of the records for youngest titled players.

We are likely to see another 10-year-old IM soon (Shogdzhiev). Will we see a 9-year-old IM at some point? While the GM record is still at 12 years, might we see a GM aged 11? Or is there some reason that this is difficult apart from needing the experience and learning to get to that level? And the logistics of attaining the norms and the rating?

Is this recent upsurge a COVID-fuelled blip (referring here to those who accelerated their chess training in the pandemic), or part of an ongoing longer-term trend?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Adding here that Shogdzhiev has indeed just recently become the world's youngest IM. Congratulations to him. Am only hoping he does not become a pawn of the Russian state. That would be very sad if that happened. Are there indications that this might happen?

Have only just noticed that he was born in Elista, Kalmykia! (See: Chess City.)

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

The tournament where he achieved his 3rd IM norm looks really weak!
https://www.chess.com/news/view/shogdzh ... nal-master
Two GMs - one rated 2261 and the other 2154. I guess their presence raised the category of the tournament.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

He does seem the real deal. Lives and breathes chess. Has seven(!) grandmaster coaches.

Next scheduled to play at the London event next week (that over-priced World Rapid & Blitz Team Championships).

Some debate in the comments on the chess.com article (that Jon linked to) about GM Popchev. Valid comment (IMO) that "norm factory" events don't actually help the winners develop as chess players.

[IM Jack Rudd]

The tournament where he achieved his 3rd IM norm looks really weak!
https://www.chess.com/news/view/shogdzh ... nal-master
Two GMs - one rated 2261 and the other 2154. I guess their presence raised the category of the tournament.

No, they lowered it - you can easily calculate that those players were lower-rated than the average rating of the tournament.

(Not that "category" is a particularly meaningful description these days, because category norms were abolished many years ago.)

[IM Jack Rudd]

Valid comment (IMO) that "norm factory" events don't actually help the winners develop as chess players.

They don't, but this is akin to a complaint that academic examinations don't help you develop your understanding of the subject.

[Matt Mackenzie]

The tournament where he achieved his 3rd IM norm looks really weak!
https://www.chess.com/news/view/shogdzh ... nal-master
Two GMs - one rated 2261 and the other 2154. I guess their presence raised the category of the tournament.

The latter GM had a peak rating of around 2500 and is still "only" 60, so somewhat curious.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

(Not that "category" is a particularly meaningful description these days, because category norms were abolished many years ago.)

Thanks, I didn't know that.
I had a peak at the FIDE handbook:

IM performance is ≥ 2450 performance against opponents with average rating ≥ 2230.

And for Shogdzhiev, his performance was apparently 2466 and his opponents' average rating was 2246 (rounded up).
Also, exactly 1/3 of his opponents were IMs or GMs, which is the other requirement.

[Joey Stewart]

Adding here that Shogdzhiev has indeed just recently become the world's youngest IM. Congratulations to him. Am only hoping he does not become a pawn of the Russian state. That would be very sad if that happened. Are there indications that this might happen?

They put on a special tournament just for him to gain a norm at an age most kids would not have even picked up a piece before, I think it's fair to say he's already pretty well indebted whether he knows it or not yet.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Tournament took place in Serbia. Three Indians, one Bulgarian, four Serbians, and one Montenegrin. Shogdzhiev himself plays under a FID flag.

When you say "they" do you mean RadnickiChess? There was at one point a FIDE page that said: "The tournaments "Radnickichess" are suitable for players who want to achieve ELO rating points or /and GM and IM norms (also WGM and WIM norms)."

I am not disputing that the "Radnickichess" tournaments are designed to produce norms. But are you saying that the Russian Chess Federation influenced the make-up of this tournament? It would not need much influencing!

It is more concerning, IMO, that his first norm was also at a RadnickiChess tournament. But it has long been the case that you could do this. The "one norm must be a Swiss" rule was explicitly designed to counter this, but IMO they should extend it to four norms (for both GM and IM titles) and make it a rule that two of the norms need to be "normal Open Swiss" events. That might help (though it would make it harder to compare norm and title achievements from different eras).

(EDIT: Even simpler: make it a rule that two of the three norms must be "normal Open Swiss" events.)

[NickFaulks]

Valid comment (IMO) that "norm factory" events don't actually help the winners develop as chess players.

That is certainly true, but a real talent only has to play in three of them, then they can get on with their proper chess life. It can all be over in three weeks!

[NickFaulks]

There was at one point a FIDE page that said: "The tournaments "Radnickichess" are suitable for players who want to achieve ELO rating points or /and GM and IM norms (also WGM and WIM norms.

That is a provocative thing to write on a "FIDE page". Do you know where it could be found?

(EDIT: Even simpler: make it a rule that two of the three norms must be "normal Open Swiss" events.)

Little chance of that. There was a huge fight getting the single norm rule through, and even that has been weakened through special pleading.

Not everyone may be aware that in earlier times one norm had to come from a "proper" round robin, rather than a "new-fangled" Swiss.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

There was at one point a FIDE page that said: "The tournaments "Radnickichess" are suitable for players who want to achieve ELO rating points or /and GM and IM norms (also WGM and WIM norms.

That is a provocative thing to write on a "FIDE page". Do you know where it could be found?

(EDIT: Even simpler: make it a rule that two of the three norms must be "normal Open Swiss" events.)

Little chance of that. There was a huge fight getting the single norm rule through, and even that has been weakened through special pleading.

Not everyone may be aware that in earlier times one norm had to come from a "proper" round robin, rather than a "new-fangled" Swiss.

Interesting. Do you know the years when those different rules for norms were in effect. I presume someone (other than FIDE) has been keeping an archive of previous versions of the FIDE Handbook and rules and the dates?

https://calendar.fide.com/calendar.php?id=3614

That is an example of the current wording used on FIDE calendar pages for Radnickichess. That will vanish at some point.

The wording I quoted comes up when you search for "Radnickichess" and "FIDE".

https://www.fide.com

RADNICKICHESS GM, IM and Scheveningen tournaments

https://www.fide.com/calendar/53477

It calls itself a "technical info" page but currently returns a 4XX page put up there by FIDE. This phenomenon where webpages that have been taken down still persist in search results is a known phenomenon. I cannot remember what causes it.

You could take a screenshot of the search results.

[Roger de Coverly]

Not everyone may be aware that in earlier times one norm had to come from a "proper" round robin, rather than a "new-fangled" Swiss.

Perhaps there was a belief that in the days before deterministic computer generated pairings, it was possible, normal even, for arbiters to bend the pairing rules to favour favourite Norm seekers. It was always possible and still is to make the invitations to all play all tournaments friendly to Norm seekers. What is needed is titled players whose strength is below their rating. That makes the Norm target a bit easier to achieve whilst maintaining the qualifying headcount of GMs and IMs. Non-domestic players are also needed.

[NickFaulks]

Do you know the years when those different rules for norms were in effect. I presume someone (other than FIDE) has been keeping an archive of previous versions of the FIDE Handbook and rules and the dates?

Kevin O'Connell did an enormous amount of work on this and never got any credit from FIDE for it. I'm sure he would be pleased to help if you asked.