Sergey Karjakin
From Chesspedia, the Free Chess Encyclopedia.
Sergey Karjakin (Ukrainian: Сергій Карякін; Russian: Сергей Карякин) (born January 12, 1990) of Ukraine became the youngest chess grandmaster ever at the age of 12 years and 7 months.
He was the official second (helper) of fellow Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov, during the 2002 FIDE World championship. In 2004, Karjakin finished second to Boris Gelfand at the Pamplona, Navarra tournament, held from December 20 to December 29.
At age 15, Karjakin scored +7 =3 -1 to win the Young Stars of the World 2005 tournament held in Kirishi, Russia from 14 May to 26 May. Practicing before the tournament with Nigel Short in Greece, Karjakin was involved in a car accident on the way to the Athens airport and suffered minor injuries. This may have contributed to a slow start, as he lost a game and obtained only 1.5 points in the first three rounds. He finished strongly with six wins and just two draws the rest of the way to win the tournament by a full point.
In his career, he has already beaten top grandmasters including (in a blitz game) Vladimir Kramnik. He entered the world's top 100 in the April 2005 FIDE list, where he was number 64 in the world with an Elo rating of 2635. On the October 2005 list, he had a rating of 2658, making him number 44 in the world.
