American GM Abhimanyu Mishra spoke about difficulties with financial support in an interview with The New Indian Express. Mishra says that he is considering changing his chess federation. Abhimanyu compares his situation to the Faustino Oro’s level of support.

Abhimanyu Mishra

Abhimanyu Mishra

The youngest GM in history

“In the US, it’s unfortunate. After I became GM during Covid, my father approached 200-300 people overall for sponsorships. Somehow, every single one of them fell through. You could see they wanted to support chess… but maybe some inertia in the system.

We tried just about everything to get sponsorship in the US but nothing has really worked out… no hate or anything to Faustino Oro but when he was going for the record, you could see how he was given a lot of resources. I didn’t get 5-10% of it.

We are talking $200-250 an hour. So, if I’m being tutored by somebody for four hours over a weekend, that’s $1000 right there.

It’s very difficult. I have played some simuls against kids to keep up… but I have to do what I have to do to make ends meet.

The thing is I still like to play for the US. I was born and brought up here. But I will probably switch federations if this lack of support continues.”

17-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra holds the achievement of the youngest Grandmaster in history. He earned the GM title at the age of 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days. Mishra is USA’s No. 15 and World’s No. 96 with a rating of 2630.

12-year-old Faustino Oro became the second-youngest GM in history in May. Faustino is signed with sponsors including the Wasserman Agency, Mercado Libre, MyInvestor, and the Internet Chess Club. Oro signed with the esports organization 9z Team in May.

Credit: Lennart Ootes