Andy Woodward becomes World’s Youngest Chess Grandmaster

Although it’s not an all-time record, the chess world welcomes its newest youngest grandmaster, 13-year-old American prodigy GM Andy Woodward.

At the age of 13 years, 8 months and 28 days, Andy Woodward secured his third (last) GM Norm at Jeddah International Chess Festival 2024 in Saudi Arabia on Jan 30th. Andy entered the list of the Top 10 youngest chess Grandmasters in history, securing the 10th position, just after the legendary Magnus Carlsen and the reigning champion of the Tata Steel super tournament, Wei Yi.

Interestingly, he displaced Raunak Sadhwani from the Top 10 youngest Grandmasters. It was Raunak Sadhwani who drew with Andy Woodward in the last game at Jeddah, contributing to Andy’s achievement of becoming a Grandmaster. Check out the new list of all 14 players who met the criteria to achieve the Grandmaster title before reaching their 14th birthday.

#	Player	Country	Age	Birth Year
1	Abhimanyu Mishra	United States	12 years, 4 months, 25 days	2009
2	Sergey Karjakin	Ukraine	12 years, 7 months, 0 days	1990
3	Gukesh Dommaraju	India	12 years, 7 months, 17 days	2006
4	Javokhir Sindarov	Uzbekistan	12 years, 10 months, 5 days	2005
5	Praggnanandhaa R	India	12 years, 10 months, 13 days	2005
6	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	Uzbekistan	13 years, 1 month, 11 days	2004
7	Parimarjan Negi	India	13 years, 4 months, 22 days	1993
8	Magnus Carlsen	Norway	13 years, 4 months, 27 days	1990
	Wei Yi	China	13 years, 8 months, 23 days	1999
10	Andy Woodward	United States	13 years, 8 months, 28 days	2010
11	Raunak Sadhwani	India	13 years, 9 months, 28 days	2005
12	Bu Xiangzhi	China	13 years, 10 months, 13 days	1985
13	Samuel Sevian	United States	13 years, 10 months, 27 days	2000
14	Richárd Rapport	Hungary	13 years, 11 months, 6 days	1996

Besides the World Champion title, Grandmaster stands as the highest accolade in chess. Once acquired, this title is conferred for a lifetime. However, in rare instances, the title can be rescinded, particularly in cases of proven cheating.

To attain the title of Chess Grandmaster, a player must secure three Grandmaster norms, achieved through outstanding performances (typically rating performance of 2600 or higher) in high-level tournaments. Alongside norms, the player needs to maintain a FIDE Elo rating above 2500 at any time of their career.

Andy Woodward secured his initial GM norm at the Hollywood Masters in Los Angeles in November 2022, featuring over 1000 Grandmasters. The second GM norm was clinched at the Vezerkepzo GM event in Budapest, Hungary, in May 2023. In January 2024, he exceeded the 2500 Elo mark, and within the same month, he fulfilled the requirements for the final norm, marking a significant achievement in his journey toward becoming a Chess Grandmaster.

In the 1st Jeddah International Chess Festival 2024, Young Masters group, Andy Woodward achieved an impressive performance rating of 2613. Over the course of 9 rounds, he secured 6 points, with a record of 5 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses. Despite a challenging start with 2 losses against fellow chess prodigy Erdogmus Yagiz Kaan and Volodar Murzin, Andy demonstrated resilience by winning the next 3 games, including a notable victory against Indian GM Pranav V while playing with the black pieces. Review the game here:

Born in the United States in 2010, Andy Woodward boasts Filipino heritage from his mother’s side and began playing chess at a young age. During the Chess.com 2024 Puzzles World Championship, Woodward’s outstanding puzzle-solving abilities propelled him to the grand final, where he faced the reigning champion, Ray Robson, and narrowly missed claiming the championship.

Woodward trained with Ukrainian-American Grandmaster Yaroslav Zherebukh from 2019. He became FM in 2021, IM in 2022 and GM in 2024. In 2023, Hikaru Nakamura provided Woodward and Zherebukh with frequent sponsorship for weekly lessons.

In the same competition, 12-year-old Turkish IM Erdogmus Yagiz Kaan won 1st place with 6.5 points, securing his second GM norm and achieving an impressive performance rating of 2651. His journey included a victory over Andy Woodward in the first game, leading him to maintain his dominance throughout the tournament. Currently holding a rating of 2524, Erdogmus is on the verge of entering the Top 20 rankings among junior chess players worldwide. He also stands the chance to become one of the youngest Grandmasters ever; he only requires one more GM norm to achieve this milestone.