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Chess prodigies are children who play chess so well that they are able to beat Masters and even Grandmasters, often at a very young age. Chess is one of the few sports where children can compete with adults on equal ground; it is thus one of the few skills in which true child prodigies exist. Expectations can be high for chess prodigies; while some become World Champions, others fail to make progress in adulthood.

Early chess prodigies were Paul Morphy (1837-1884) and José Raúl Capablanca (1888-1942), both of whom won matches against strong adult opponents at the age of 12; and Samuel Reshevsky (1911-1992), who was giving simultaneous exhibitions at the age of 8. Morphy went on to be unofficial World Champion (before the official title existed), Capablanca became World Champion, and Reshevsky—while never attaining the title—was in the top few players in the world for many years. In modern times, Bobby Fischer (1943-) won the U.S. Chess Championship at age 14, and qualified as an International Grandmaster at 15½, the youngest player up until that time to do so.

One measure of chess prodigies is the age at which they gain the International Grandmaster title. It should be noted that this title has only existed since 1950; and also that the title has become less difficult to obtain in recent years (see International Grandmaster Title inflation).

Nevertheless, there have been more strong prodigies in recent years. This is mostly because of technology, with computers making it possible to learn and train faster, and both lower travel costs and the Internet making it possible to train and play against foreign players and to play in strong tournaments abroad.^{[citation needed]}

Below are players who have held the record for youngest grandmaster. The age listed is the age on which they qualified for the title. This is not equal to the age at which they officially became Grandmasters, because GM titles can only be awarded at FIDE congresses.

Year	Player	Country	Age
1955	Boris Spassky	Soviet Union	18 years
1958	Bobby Fischer	United States	15 years, 6 months, 1 day
1991	Judit Polgar	Hungary	15 years, 4 months, 28 days
1994	Péter Lékó	Hungary	14 years, 4 months, 22 days
1997	Etienne Bacrot	France	14 years, 2 months, 0 days
1997	Ruslan Ponomariov	Ukraine	14 years, 0 months, 17 days
1999	Bu Xiangzhi	China	13 years, 10 months, 13 days
2002	Sergey Karjakin	Ukraine	12 years, 7 months, 0 days

This is a list of the players to become Grandmasters before their fifteenth birthday:

Player	Country	Age
Sergey Karjakin	Ukraine	12 years, 7 months, 0 days
Parimarjan Negi	India	13 years, 4 months, 22 days
Magnus Carlsen	Norway	13 years, 4 months, 27 days
Bu Xiangzhi	China	13 years, 10 months, 13 days
Teimour Radjabov	Azerbaijan	14 years, 0 months, 14 days
Ruslan Ponomariov	Ukraine	14 years, 0 months, 17 days
Wesley So	Philippines	14 years, 1 month, 28 days [1]
Etienne Bacrot	France	14 years, 2 months, 0 days
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	France	14 years, 4 months [2]
Péter Lékó	Hungary	14 years, 4 months, 22 days
Yuriy Kuzubov	Ukraine	14 years, 7 months, 12 days [3]
Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son	Vietnam	14 years, 10 months
Fabiano Caruana	Italy	14 years, 11 months, 10 days [4]

The youngest ever female to become a grandmaster (not to be confused with the lesser Woman Grandmaster title) is Koneru Humpy, who achieved the title at 15 years, 1 month, 27 days.[5]

• Chessbase news about young Grandmasters