American GM Fabiano Caruana shared his opinion on Argentinian GM Faustino Oro becoming the second-youngest GM in history. Caruana says becoming a GM at 12 or 13 does not guarantee becoming World Champion, and questions whether the achievement is a predictor of success.

Fabiano Caruana

Fabiano Caruana

American GM

“Faustino Oro became the second-youngest GM in history… I don’t see why this record means so much. But I understand why they go after it.

I mean, because whether you’re GM at 12 or 13 — you’re going to be a super strong player. But whether you become World Champion is probably not based on that.

I’m interested in whether this is a predictor of success…”

American Abhimanyu Mishra became the youngest GM in history at the age of 12 years and 4 months. Abhimanyu is ranked 84th in the FIDE rating list at the time of publication. Argentinian Faustino Oro became the second-youngest GM at the age of 12 years and 6 months on May 10.

Gukesh Dommaraju, Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, Javokhir Sindarov, and Praggnanandhaa R became GMs at the age of 12. Magnus Carlsen, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Wei Yi, and Andy Woodward received the title at the age of 13.

Credit: Lennart Ootes