America’s ‘next Bobby Fischer’ says why he is not able to pursue chess full-time

Indian-origin American chess Grandmaster Abhimanyu Mishra has opened up about not being able to pursue chess full-time in the absence of corporate sponsorship.

In 2021, when he was just 12, Mishra broke Sergey Karjakin's record to become the youngest GM in the world.

Now 16, he hasn't made great strides, improving only gradually. His standard Elo rating has only increased by a little over 100 points in the last four years to reach 2611. By contrast, India's World Champion D Gukesh, who was also a 2500-plus player four years ago, is in the 2700-club.

"The main delay in the breakthrough was because, unlike all top players, I had to divide my time between both chess and high school," Mishra said in a post on the social media platform X.

He said, "50% of my time was spent studying for many AP Courses that I'd taken. Without corporate involvement (current situation), it's hard to imagine pursuing chess full time". His father, Hemant, said in a recent interview with Rediff that the boy often remarked as the 'next Bobby Fischer' doesn't have a trainer.

Despite the struggles, Mishra was in sublime form at the recently concluded FIDE Grand Swiss at Samarkand in Uzbekistan, where he finished fifth, just half-a-point behind the podium. He went unbeaten in the 11-round classical tournament, one of the heavily contested events in the FIDE cycle, famously shocking Gukesh in round 5.

All his opponents were rated higher than him, with eight of them in the 2700-club. Mishra had a performance rating of 2828, which is Super GM level. "I'm glad that even with just 50% of my time, I was able to produce such a result," Mishra posted.