Indian chess prodigy D Gukesh lost a historic match Monday to American Grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra, who at 16 became the youngest player in history to defeat a world champion in a classical chess match. In Round 5 of the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Gukesh suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Mishra, the youngest grandmaster in history.
Mishra broke a 33-year-old record set by Grandmaster Gata Kamsky of the USA when he was 17 and defeated the then-world champion Garry Kasparov in Dortmund. Gukesh, the youngest-ever world chess champion, lost the match in 61 moves while playing with black pieces.
Who is Abhimanyu Mishra?
Abhimanyu Mishra is a chess prodigy from New Jersey. According to ChessWizards.com on June 30th, 2021, he became the world’s youngest chess Grandmaster, qualifying for the title at just 12 years old. He was taught the game of chess by his parents when he was 2 years old.
His early career was shaped by Indian grandmasters like Magesh Chandran (India’s 12th grandmaster) and Arun Prasad Subramanian (India’s 18th grandmaster). He first became Candidate Master in 2017, followed by the International Master title in 2020 and the Grandmaster title in 2021.
Mishra on winning against Gukesh
Despite securing a world record win, Abhimanyu Mishra didn’t look overawed as he said he had played better games in the past, and if not for mistakes by Gukesh, he could have lost the Round 5 contest.
“Honestly, I would much prefer the game that I have won before,” Mishra told FIDE after beating Gukesh. “Like my game against Yu Yangyi was so much better than this because even though I won, it doesn’t feel as pleasing as my previous games in the tournament, as I had the winning position and I basically just threw it away. And later he made some mistakes and I got back, but overall, it wasn’t a very clean game.”
