Garry Kasparov shared his opinion on the Grandmaster title in an interview with Sport in Antwerpen. Kasparov believes that the highest FIDE title has experienced inflation. Garry notes that he does not downplay the achievements of new Grandmasters.

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov

12th World Champion

“Children of eight, nine, ten years old now beat Grandmasters. Maybe that means that not all grandmasters today are ‘real’ grandmasters.

But on the other hand, that observation is not uncommon. When I was a child, it was very difficult to compete against adult, more complete players. That meant it took a long time before you were ‘chess mature’.

Nowadays, children start playing chess much earlier. They can study games on their computers. They play a lot and gain experience that way. They receive online coaching. But we must admit that the title of Grandmaster has experienced inflation. In the past, you knew all the Grandmasters by their first name.

I have no idea how many grandmasters there are right now. There are perhaps 2,000 of them, which doesn’t mean I minimize their achievements.”

1,332 active and 572 inactive Grandmasters are listed in the FIDE database. The database lists 33 GMs born after 2008. 13-year-old Faustino Oro is the youngest current Grandmaster with 2560 Classical points. Abhimanyu Mishra became the youngest GM in chess history at the age of 12 years and 4 months.

Credit: Crystal Fuller