Meet American Teen Abhimanyu Mishra Who Stunned World Champion D Gukesh After Picking Up Chess to Escape Screen Time

Last Updated:September 09, 2025, 13:34 IST

Abhimanyu Mishra registered the biggest win of his chess career when he outfoxed reigning world champion D Gukesh in the ongoing FIDE Grand Swiss 2025.

Abhimanyu considers himself on par with India stars. (Picture Credit: X/FIDE_chess)

Abhimanyu Mishra has announced his arrival by taking down the reigning world champion D Gukesh in a round five clash of the ongoing FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand (Uzbekistan). At 16 years of age, Abhimanyu is the youngest ever player in chess history to defeat a reigning world champion in a classical game.

Abhimanyu may have made him known to a wider Indian audience through his latest exploit, but the teenage American star has been creating ripples for some time now. In 2019, he had become the youngest ever International Master and two years later, broke the record for the youngest ever Grandmaster in history.

Here’s all you need to know about the teen prodigy:

Who Is Abhimanyu Mishra?

Abhimanyu’s parents hail from India. His father Hemant Mishra moved to USA five years after completing his MTech from MANIT-Bhopal in 2000. His mother Swati hails from Agra.

He was born on February 5, 2009 and hails from New Jersey (New York).

In an interview with India Today, Hemant revealed that they introduced Abhimanyu to chess at an early age so that he won’t get addicted to phone.

“We started way back when he was 2 years and 8 months. The idea was to introduce this Royal Game to him. We preferred him spending time on this game, rather than working on his phone or iPad because at that time, I saw many kids who were addicted to that. That’s how it started. He started playing tournaments from the age of 5," Hemant was quoted as saying.

In 2019, Abhimanyu, showed the first glimpses of his talent when at the age of 10 years, 9 months and 20 days, he became the youngest International Master. In 2021, he then created a world record by becoming the youngest Grandmaster at the age of 12 years, 4 months and 25 days on June 30, 2021.

Before taking down Gukesh, Abhimanyu showed his wares to another Indian prodigy R Praggnanandhaa whom he held to a draw at the FIDE Swiss Grand.

Abhimanyu has been coached by Indian Grandmasters Arun Prasad Subramanian and Magesh Chandran. “We were lucky to get very good coaches, Grand Master Arun Prasad Subramanian and Grandmaster Mahesh. They started planning everything and we were just executing," Hemant said.

Abhimanyu has broken into the top 100 rankings.

Feroz Khan

Feroz Khan has been covering sports for over 12 years now and is currently working with Network18 as Principal Correspondent. He embarked on his journey in 2011 and has since acquired vast experience in digital...Read More

Feroz Khan has been covering sports for over 12 years now and is currently working with Network18 as Principal Correspondent. He embarked on his journey in 2011 and has since acquired vast experience in digital...

Read More

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