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.