Prodigies and Chess

by Bill Wall

Chess prodigies are children who can beat experienced adult players and masters
at chess.
Michael Adams (1971- ) was beating experienced adult chess players at age 8. He
became an International Master (IM) at age 15 and a grandmaster (GM) at the age
of 17. In 1987, he took the silver medal at the World Under-16 Championship.
Later that year, at age 15, he became the world’s youngest IM. At age 17, he won
the British championship.
Alexander Alekhine learned chess at age seven by his mother, an heiress of an
industrial fortune. He became addicted to the game and played the game in his
head and by the light of a candle when in bed. By age 18 he was grandmaster
strength.
Viswanathan Anand (1969- ) became India’s first GM at age 18. In 1983, at the
age of 14, he won the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship with a perfect
score of 9 out of 9. He became the youngest Indian to be awarded the IM title at
the age of 15. At the age of 16, he became nation chess champion of India. In
1987, he became the first Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championship.
Etienne Bacrot (1983- ) of France became a GM at 14 years and 2 months, making
him the youngest person to that date to have held the title. He started playing
chess at age 4. By age 10, he was winning junior competitions. In 1996, at the
age of 13, he beat former world chess champion Vasily Smyslov.
Joel Benjamin (1964- ) became the youngest-ever US chess master at age 13 up to
that time. In 1976 he won the National Elementary championship. In 1978 he
won the National Junior High championship. In 1980-81, he won the National
High School championship. In 1980 he won the US Junior championship and was
awarded the IM title. In 1986, he was awarded the GM title.
Vinay Bhat (1984- ) starting playing chess at age 6, joined a chess club (the Palo
Alto Chess Club run by Bill Wall), and played in rated tournaments at age 7. Vinay
Bhat became America's youngest master in 1995 at the age of 10 years, 176 days.
He became an IM at the age of 15, at the time the youngest ever in US history. He
became a GM at the age of 23 in 2007. He received a B.S. in Statistics and Political
Economy from UC, Berkeley in 2006. He is currently a Senior Data Scientist.
Jose Capablanca (1888-1942) was playing chess at age 4. Capablanca wrote that
he learned chess by watching his father play when he had just passed his fourth
birthday. He even beat his father in his first game at age four, and was beating
strong adults at age 12. At age 13, he beat his country’s chess champion in a
match.
Magnus Carlsen (1990- ) was a grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 4 months, and
27 days in 2004. At age 16 he was rated over 2700. At age 18 he was rated over
2800, and the youngest player to be ranked No. 1 in the world by FIDE. In 2010, at
age 19, he became the world’s youngest ever number one-ranked chess player.
He is the current world chess champion.
Fabiano Caruana (1992- ) started playing chess at the age of 5. He became a GM
at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days. In 2002 Fabiano Caruana, age 10,
defeated GM Wojtkiewicz at the Marshall Chess Club in New York, becoming the
youngest player to defeat a GM in the United States.
Jorge Cori (1995- ) of Peru became a GM at 14 years and 2 months. In 2011, he
was World Under-16 champion.
Howard Daniels became a USCF master at the age of 15 years, 4 months, the
youngest African-American chess master at the time.
Maxim Dlugy (1966- ) was awarded the IM title at the age of 16. In 1985, he won
the World Junior Chess Championship. At age 18, he finished 3rd in the US
championship. He became a GM in 1985 at the age of 19.
Daniil Dubov (1996- ) of Russia became a GM at the age of 14 years, 11 months,
and 14 days in 2011.
Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) began playing at the age of six, taught by his older
sister and reading the rules that came with the game. He became a master at age
13, US champion at 14, world's youngest candidate for the world championship at
15, and world's youngest grandmaster at age 15 years, 6 months, 1 day. Some
sources list Bobby Fischer's IQ between 180 and 187. As a child, he was accepted
by Community Woodward school in Brooklyn as the result of his IQ test score of
180 (Brady, Endgame, p. 25).
Nona Gaprindashvili (1941- ) learned at age five after watching her five chess-
playing brothers. She won the world's women chess championship when she was
21. She was the first female grandmaster.
Jessie Gilbert (1986-2006) was a British chess prodigy. She represented England in
every major chess competition from the age of 12. In 1999, she won the Women’s
World Amateur Chess Championship.
Anish Giri (1994- ) of the Netherlands became a GM at the age of 14 years, 7
months, and 2 days. He speaks six languages.
Ilya Gurevich (1972- ) was a chess master at the age of 12 years and 3 months. In
1983, he won the US National Scholastic Elementary School Chess Championship.
In 1984, he won the world under-14 championship. In 1990, he won the World
Junior Championship at an 18-year old. He is now an options trader.
Pendyala Harikrishna (1986- ) of India became a GM at the age of 15 years, 3
months, and 5 days. In 1996, he won the world under-10 championship. In 2004,
he won the World Junior Chess Championship.
Jutta Hempel (1960- ) was a German chess prodigy. At age 3, she could watch a
game of chess and replay it from memory. At age 4, she was playing chess
competitively. At age 6, she was giving simultaneous exhibitions. At age 7, she
could play 6 games simultaneously blindfolded. At age 9, she got two draws from
IM Jens Enevoldsen.
Shah Hetul (1999- ) is an Indian chess player. In 2009, at the age of 9 years and 6
months, he became the youngest person to beat a GM in chess at a standard time
control.
David Howell (1990- ) of the UK started playing chess at 5 and became a GM at 16
years and one month. In 1999 David Howell, age 8, defeated Grandmaster John
Nunn in a blitz chess game at the Mind Sports Chess Olympiad in London,
becoming the youngest person to beat a Grandmaster at chess. At age 9, he
became the youngest player in the world to have qualified to compete in a
national chess championship. In 2001, he became the youngest ever British
player to defeat a GM at classical time controls when he beat GM Colin McNab. In
2002, he drew a game against world champion Vladimir Kramnik, becoming the
youngest player in the world to score against a reigning world chess champion.
He won the British Under-8, Under-9 and Under-10 chess championship.
John Jarecki (1969- ) was a chess master at the age of 12 years and 6 months.
Gata Kamsky (1974- ) defeated GM Mark Taimanov in a tournament at age 12 and
was awarded the master title. He won the Soviet under-20 championship in 1987
and 1988. Kamsky was rated 2650 at the age of 16. He went to medical school
and law school, graduating from the law school at Touro Law Center in New York.
K.K. Karanja (1973- ) is regarded as the first African-American chess prodigy. He
became a USCF Candidate Master at the age of 10, the youngest African-American
to do so. In 1985, at the age of 11, he won the National Elementary Chess
Championship with a perfect 7-0 score. In 1989, at the age of 15 years and 7
months, he became a chess master.
Sergey Karjakan (1990- ) of the Ukraine holds the record for both the youngest
International Master and the youngest Grandmaster at the age of 12 years and 7
months in 2002. He learned to play chess at the age of 5. He became an IM at the
age of 11. In 2001, he won the World Under-12 championship.
Anatoly Karpov (1951- ) was taught the moves of chess when he was four years
old. By age 15 he was a master and later won the World Junior Championship. He
became the world's youngest grandmaster in 1970 at the age of 19.
Garry Kasparov (1963- ) was a child prodigy in chess. He became a GM in 1980
and 5 years later he became the then youngest-ever world chess champion. He
was ranked in the top 15 players in the world at age 16. Some sources give
Kasparov an IQ between 185 and 190. But one source has it listed as 135. In 1987-
88, the German magazine Der Spiegel went to considerable effort and expense to
find out Kasparov's IQ. Under the supervision of an international team of
psychologists, Kasparov was given a large battery of tests designed to measure his
memory, spatial ability, and abstract reasoning. They measured his IQ as 135 and
his memory as one of the very best.
Humpy Koneru (1987- ) of India became a GM at the age of 15 years, 1 month,
and 27 days. In 1999, she was Asia’s youngest International Woman Master. In
2001, she won the World Junior Girls Championship.
Irina Krush (1983- ) learned how to play chess at age 5. She won the 1998 US
Women’s Chess Championship at the age of 14 to become the youngest US
Women’s Champion ever. She has won the US Women’s Chess Championship 7
times.
Yuriy Kuzubov (1990- ) of the Ukraine became a GM at the age of 14 years, 7
months, and 12 days.
Peter Leko (1979- ) of Hungary learned chess at the age of 7 and became a GM at
14 years, 4 months, 22 days in 1994. In 1994, he won the world Under-16
championship.
Awonder Liang (2003- ) won the world under-8 chess championship in 2011. He
became the youngest chess expert in the US in 2011 at the age of 8 years and 7
days. In 2011, at the age of 8 years and 118 days, he became the youngest to
defeat an IM in a standard tournament game. In 2012, at the age of 9 years and
111 days, he became the youngest person ever to defeat a GM in a standard time
limit tournament game. In 2013 he became the youngest US master at 9 years
358 days. In 2014, at the age of 11 years and 92 days, he became the youngest
American to achieve an IM norm.
Jon Litvinchuk (1967- ) was a chess master at the age of 12 years and 7 months.
He was the 1982 National High School chess champion.
Luke McShane (1984- ) won the world under-10 championship at age 8. At 16, he
became the youngest ever British GM at that time.
Henrique Mecking (1952- ) of Brazil learned the game at 6 and was giving
simultaneous displays at age 9. He won the Brazilian championship at age 13 and
the South American Zonal at 14. He became an International Master at age 15.
Jordy Mont-Reynaud (1983- ) starting playing chess, joined a chess and played in
rated tournaments at age 7. His first chess coach was Bill Wall. Jordy was a
master in 1994 at the age of 10 years, 209 days. In 1992 he won the National
Primary (K-3) championship. In 1993, he took 3rd place in the world under-10
championship. In 1994, he won the National K-8 championship. In 1999, he won
the US Cadet (under 16) championship. He graduated from Stanford and is now
CEO of Dojo.com, a social-persuasive technology web service.
Paul Morphy (1837-1884) was a child prodigy. At age 9, he was considered one of
the best chess players in New Orleans. He beat Hungarian master Johann
Loewenthal 3-0 at the age of 12. He was the greatest chess master of his era and
an unofficial world chess champion. He received a law degree at the age of 20.
He was the first American chess prodigy.
Arkadij Naiditsch (1985- ) of Germany became a GM at the age of 15 years and 5
months in 2001.
Hikaru Nakamura (1987- ) learned how to play chess at the age of 4. In 1998, he
became America's youngest master at 10 years, 79 days. In 2001 he became
America's youngest International Master at age 13. He became a GM at the age
of 15 years, 2 months, and 19 days. He has won the US championship four times.
Parimarjan Negi (1993- ) of India became a GM at the age of 13 years, 4 months,
20 days. He is the second-youngest GM ever, second only to Sergey Karjakin.
Nicholas Nip (1998- ) became a master at the age of 9 years, 11 months and 26
days.
John Nunn (1955- ) at the age of 12, won the British under-14 championship. At
age 15, he entered Oxford to study mathematics. At the time, he was Oxford’s
youngest undergraduate since Cardinal Wolsey in 1520. In 1955, he became
European Junior Champion. He was awarded the GM title in 1978. In 1978, he
earned a PhD in mathematics with a dissertation on finite H-spaces.
Illya Nyzhnyk (1996- ) of the Ukraine became a GM at the age of 14 years, 3
months, and 2 days. At the age of 10, he won the Group B section of the 2007
Moscow Open, scoring 8.5 out of 9 with a performance rating of 2633.
Judit Polgar (1976) of Hungary became a grandmaster at the age of 15 years, 4
months, 28 days in 1991. She is considered the best female chess player in
history. She beat her first grandmaster at age 11. She has beaten 9 world chess
champions. Her IQ is 170.
Susan Polgar (1969- ) started playing chess at 4. At age 4, she won her first
tournament, the Budapest Girls’ Under-11 Championship with a perfect 10-0
score. In 1982, at the age of 12, she won the World Under 16 (Girls)
Championship. In 1984, at the age of 15, she was the top-rated female chess
player in the world.
Arturo Pomar (1931- ) played in the Spanish Championship at age 10 and became
a master at age 13. He drew world chess champion Alexander Alekhine in 1944 at
the age of 13.
Ruslan Ponomariov (1983- ) learned how to play chess at age 5 and became a GM
at the age of 14 years and 17 days. In 1996 he won the European under-18
championship at the age of 12. In 1997, he won the world under-18
championship.
Stewart Rachels (1969- ) was a chess master at the age of 11 years and 10
months. That record stood until 1994. In 1988 he won the US Junior Invitational
Championship. He tied for 1st place in the 1989-90 US chess championship. In
1998, he received a PhD in philosophy from Syracuse University.
Teimour Radjabov (1987- ) of Azerbaijan became a GM at 14 years and 14 days. In
1999 he won the European Under-18 championship. In 2002, he became the
youngest player ever to make the FIDE Top 100 Players list
Alejandro Ramirez (1988- ) started playing chess at age 4 and became a GM at the
age of 15 years, 5 months, and 14 days. In 1998, at the age of 9, he was awarded
the FIDE master title. He was awarded the IM title at the age of 13. He graduated
from the University of Texas in Dallas with a Masters Degree in Arts &
Technology/Design and Production of Videogames.
Richard Rapport (1996- ) of Hungary became a GM at 13 years, 11 months, and 6
days. He achieved the National Master title in 2008 and became an IM in 2009.
Samuel Reshevsky (1911-1992) learned to play chess at age four and giving
simultaneous exhibitions at age 6. At age eight, he was beating strong chess
players and giving simultaneous exhibitions.
Ray Robson (1994- ) of the USA learned chess at the age of 3 and became a GM at
the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 16 days. In 2004, at the age of 9, he defeated
his fist National Master. In 2005, he defeated his first International Master. In
2005, he won the national K-6 championship. In 2006, he defeated his first GM.
In 2007, he qualified for the US chess championship, making him the youngest
player in the history of the event to participate. At age 13, he was the youngest
IM-elect in the United States.
Kenneth Rogoff (1953- ) learned chess at age 6. By age 14, he was a USCF master
and New York State Open champion. He was awarded the IM title in 1974 and the
GM title in 1978. He received a BA and MA from Yale, graduating summa cum
laude in 1975. He received a PhD in Economics from MIT in 1980. He is Professor
of Economics at Harvard.
Jeff Sarwer (1978- ) is a former child chess prodigy. He learned chess at the age of
4. In 1986, he won the under-10 world youth chess championship. His sister,
Julia, was the world champion for girls under 10.
Samuel Sevian (2000- ) started playing chess at age 5 and holds the record for the
youngest ever US grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 10 months, and 27 days, a
new US record. He became the youngest expert in USCF history. In 2010, he
became the youngest National Master is USCF history. He also holds the record
for the youngest US International Master at the age of 12 years and 10 months. In
2010, he won the world under-12 championship. In May 2013, he was invited to
play in the US championship as the youngest ever participant. At age 14, he took
5th place in the 2015 US championship,
Nigel Short (1965- ) finished joint first in the British Championship at age 14. He
was awarded the GM title at the age of 19. In 1975, at the age of 10, he defeated
GM Viktor Korchnoi in a simultaneous exhibition. In 1977, he became the
youngest ever participant on the British Chess Championship at the age of 11. He
became (at the time) the youngest International Master in chess history in 1980.
Wesley So (1993- ) learned chess at age 6 and became a GM at 14 years, 1 month,
and 28 days. In 2008, he became the youngest player to pass 2600 Elo rating.
Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (1990- ) of Vietnam became a GM at 14 years and 10
months. He learned the game of chess at age 3. In 2000, he won the world
under-10 championship. He was awarded the IM title in 2002.
Boris Spassky (1937- ) was a grandmaster at age 18 and later won the world chess
championship. Spassky learned the game in the Urals at the age of five during
World War II. After the war he joined the Pioneer Palace in Leningrad and spent
five hours a day every day on chess. By age 18 he had won the World Junior
Championship, took 3rd place in the USSR Championship, and qualified as a
Candidate for the World championship.
Dariusz Swiercz (1994- ) of Poland became a GM at the age of 14 years, 7 months,
and 29 days. In 2011, he won the under-20 world junior chess championship, the
youngest to do so. He learned the game at age 3. He became a FIDE Master in
2004 at the age of 11. In 2008, he was awarded the IM title.
Mikhail Tal (1936-1992) became interested in chess at age eight after watching the
game played by patients in the waiting room of his father, a doctor specializing in
internal disorders. At age 10 he joined the Riga Palace of Young Pioneers. He won
the Latvian championship at age 17.
Kayden Troff (1998- ) won the World Youth Chess Championship in Slovenia,
making him the highest ranking 14-year-old in the world. He became a GM at age
16. In 2014, he won the US Junior Championship. He learned the game at age 3.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (1990- ) became a GM at the age of 14 years and 4
months.
Joshua (Josh) Waitzkin (1976- ) won the US Junior championship in 1993 and
1994. He is the only person to have won the National Primary, Elementary, Junior
High School, High School, U.S. Cadet, and U.S. Junior Closed chess championships
in his career. He began playing chess at age 6. He was a National Master at age 13
and an IM at age 16.
Justus Williams (1998- ), at the age of 12, became the youngest African-American
master ever.
Hou Yifan (1994- ) of China became the youngest female grandmaster at the age
of 14 years, 6 months, and 16 days in 2008. She is a former two time Women’s
World Chess Champion, the youngest ever to win the title and the youngest
female player ever to qualify for the title of Grandmaster. At age 12, she became
the youngest player ever to participate in the FIDE Women’s World
Championship. In 2007, she became China’s youngest National Women’s
Champion ever. In 2010, she became the youngest Women’s World Chess
Champion in history at age 16.
Wei Yi (1999- ) of China became a GM at 13 years, 8 months, and 23 days.
Carissa Yip (2003- ) became the youngest US female chess expert at the age of 9 in
2013. At age 11, she is the youngest US female chess master. In 2014, she
became the youngest female ever to defeat a grandmaster.
Bu Xiangzhi (1985- ) of China became a GM at 13 years, 10 months, and 13 days.
He learned chess at age 6. In 1998, at age 12, he won the under-14 world youth
championship.

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Other prodigies and smart people
Tanishq Abraham (2003- ) was a member of the American Mensa at age 4. He
took a college Astronomy course at age 7, passed the course with an A, and was
the top student among his college classmates (the youngest in the world).
Paul Allen (1953- ) has an IQ of 170. He scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT test. He
is a chess player who always beat Bill Gates.
Balamurali Ambati graduated from high school at age 11, was a college junior at
age 12, and a medical doctor at age 17.
Andre-Marie Ampere (1775-1836) was mathematics prodigy who wrote a treatise
on conic section at age 13 and mastered much of know mathematics at age 18.
Luis Arroyo (1990- ) finished college at age 16 with a degree in physics summa
cum laude. He entered a university at age 11. He obtained a master’s degree in
physics and another in economics at age 18. He passed the bar exam and became
Juris doctor at age 22.
John Barratier, an 18th-century child prodigy, could speak German, Latin, French
and Dutch at age 4 and knew 6 languages at age 11. He died before the age of 20.
March Boedihardjo (1998- ) became the youngest student to enroll in a Hong
Kong university at the age of 9.
Gabriel Carroll (1982- ) earned the highest SAT score in the state of California,
including a perfect 800 in math, in seventh grade. He is an assistant professor in
the economics department at Stanford.
Noam Chomsky (1928- ) enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania at age 16. He
later earned his BA, MA, and PhD in linguistics. He has written over 100 books
and is considered the world’s top public intellectual.
Erik Demaine (1981- ) completed his bachelor’s degree at age 14 and completed
his PhD at age 20 in the field of computer science. He became an assistant
professor at MIT at age 20, the youngest professor in the history of MIT.
Evan Ehrenberg (1993- ) started a PhD program at MIT in the Brain and Cognitive
Sciences department studying computational neuroscience.
Noam Elkies (1966- ) was awarded the gold medal at the 22nd International
Mathematical Olympiad in 1981 at the age of 14. He achieved a perfect score, the
youngest ever to do so. He earned a PhD in mathematics from Harvard at age 20.
He is a chess master. In 1996, he won the World Chess Solving Championship.
Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) was deriving and solving the partial differential equation
for a vibrating rod using Fourier analysis at the age of 17. He achieved first place
in the classification of the entrance exam. He was a chess player.
Aaran Fernandez (1995- ) was the youngest graduate of Cambridge at the age of
14. He is a math prodigy. He plays chess.
Mikaela Fudolig (1991- ) entered the University of the Philippines at age 11 and
finished college at age 16 with a degree in physics, summa cum laude and class
valedictorian.
Carl Gauss (1777-1855) was correcting his father while adding up his accounts at
age 3. Gauss was making ground-breaking mathematical discoveries while still a
teenager. He was a chess player.
William Hamilton (1805-1865) was reading Hebrew at age 7 and was able to read
and write10 languages at age 12. He became a mathematician.
Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) received a PhD in physics in 1923 at the age of
22. He was an avid chess player.
Christopher Hirata (1982- ) was the youngest American, at age 13, to win a gold
medal in the International Physics Olympiad. He entered Caltech at the age of 14
and earned a PhD from Princeton at age 22. He has an IQ of 225. He is currently a
physics and astronomy professor at Ohio State University.
Ivan Ivec (1976- ) is a Croatian mathematician with an IQ of 174. He holds a PhD
in mathematics.
Akrit Jaswal (1993- ) performed his first surgery at the age of 7. At age 12, he was
the youngest person to get admitted in a medical university in India.
Ted Kaczynski (1942- ) was accepted into Harvard at the age of 16. He earned a
PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan and was assistant professor
of UC, Berkeley at age 25. He is a chess player.
Andrew Kamal has an IQ of 231, the highest ever recorded.
Evangelos Katsioulis (1976- ) has an IQ of 198. He is a medical doctor and has a
PhD in psychopharmacology.
Christopher Langan (1952- ) was able to read at age 4. In high school he scored
100% on his SAT test. His IQ is 210, the highest ever measured by
neuropsychologist Robert Novelly.
Jason Levy (1972- ) began York University in Toronto in 1982 at age 10 and
graduated with a BA in Mathematics at age 14. He received an MS in
Mathematics at age 15 and completed his PhD in Mathematics at the University of
Toronto in 1993 at age 20.
Ruth Lawrence (1971- ) passed the Oxford University interview entrance
examination in mathematics at age 10, coming first out of all 530 candidates. In
1985, at the age of 13, she became the youngest to graduate from the University
of Oxford in modern times, with a degree in mathematics. In 1986, she earned a
degree in physics. In 1989 she received a PhD in mathematics. In 1990, she was
made a junior fellow at Harvard.
Jay Luo (1970- ) received a BS from Boise State University with honors in
mathematics at age 12 to become the youngest university graduate in US history.
John Forbes Nash (1928- ) earned a PhD in mathematics at the age of 22 and an
expert on game theory. He is a chess player.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a mathematics prodigy. He wrote a treatise on
vibrating bodies at age 9, wrote his first proof at age 11, and was writing theorems
at age 16.
Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) had an understanding of advanced mathematics by
the age of 13 and graduated with a PhD in Physics at the age of 21.
Nikola Poljak (1982- ), Croatian researcher and physicist, has an IQ of 183.
Mislav Predavec (1967- ) is a Croatian mathematics professor with a reported IQ
of 190.
Promethea Pythaitha (1991- ) started reading at age 1 and began learning college-
level calculus at age 7. At age 13 she became the youngest student to complete
work for a bachelor’s degree from Montana State University in Mathematics. Her
IQ was 173.
Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920) learned college-level mathematics by age 11
and generated his own theorems in number theory and Bernoulli numbers by age
13.
Richard Rosner (1960- ) has an IQ of 192.
Sunny Sanwar (1989- ) could fluently read, write or speak 6 languages by the age
of 8. He finished 4 years of high school in 8 months with honors at age 16. At 18,
he was a college senior in Mechanical Engineering. At 21, he was teaching
university courses in engineering.
Steve Schuessler has an IQ of 185. He is a chess player.
Gabriel See (1998- ) achieved a 720 out of 800 on the SAT math test at age 8. He
was performing T-cell receptor research at a cancer center at age 10.
William Sidis (1898-1944) set a record in 1909 by becoming the youngest person
to enroll at Harvard College at the age of 11.
Alia Sabur (1989- ) received an undergraduate degree at age 14 from State
University of New York at Stony Brook and became a college professor at age 18,
the world’s youngest professor.
Terence Tao (1975- ) was able to do simple arithmetic at age 2. At age 9, he was
studying college-level math courses. He was the youngest medalist in
International Mathematical Olympiad history at the age of 10. At age 13, he was
the youngest gold medal recipient in International Mathematical Olympiad history
– a record that still stands today. At age 20, he earned a PhD in mathematics from
Princeton. He is currently a mathematics professor at UCLA. He is a chess player.
Manahel Thabet became the youngest person to receive a financial engineering
PhD, magna cum laude. She is working on here second PhD in quantum
mechanics. Her IQ is 168.
Tathagat Tulsi (1987- ) received an undergraduate degree at age 10 and got a PhD
in physics at age 21. He is a chess player.
Akshay Venkatesh (1981- ) of India won a bronze medal at the International
Physics Olympiad at age 11 and won a bronze medal at the International
Mathematical Olympiad at age 12. He graduated from a university at age 15 with
a double major in mathematics and physics. He finished his PhD at age 20 from
Princeton and was an Associate Professor at age 23. He currently works as a
mathematics professor at Stanford.
John von Neumann (1903-1957) was a “mental calculator” at the age of 6 and
could read classical Greek and other languages. He was a chess player.
Marilyn Mach, or Marilyn vos Savant (1946- ) scored an IQ of 228 in the Stanford-
Binet score as a 10 year old, the highest IQ ever recorded up to that time. As an
adult, she was given a second intelligence test and score an IQ of 186. Her
husband is heart surgeon Robert Jarvik, who designed the first successful artificial
heart.
Norbert Wiener (1894-1964) began graduate studies at age 14 at Harvard and was
awarded a PhD at age 18 for a dissertation on mathematical logic. He was a chess
player.
Edward Witten (1951- ) has a PhD in physics from Princeton. He is considered the
most brilliant physicist of his generation. He is a chess player.
Sho Yano started college at age 9 and graduated summa cum laude at age 12 from
Loyola University. At age 12, he was attending the Pritzker School of Medicine.
Kim Ung-Yong (1963- ) was able to read Korean, Japanese, English, and German by
the ge of 3. He graduated with a PhD in physics at the age of 15 and earned
another PhD in civil engineering. His IQ is 210.

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