1990, a historic year

Chess
Leonard Barden
Saturday March 1, 2008
The Guardian

1990 is shaping up to be the best year in chess history for the birth of strong grandmasters. Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin, both 17, are close to the top 10, while at least eight of their contemporaries are also precocious GMs.

This elite group, many of whom honed their talents against each other in junior events starting with world U-10 championships, hail mostly from eastern Europe but also include Maxim Vachier-Lagrave of France and the UK’s youngest-ever GM, David Howell.

The latest success for the golden ’90 class came last week when Ian Nepomniachtchi won Moscow Aeroflot, the world’s strongest open, and so qualified to take on the elite at Dortmund this summer. His name is a spelling challenge for journalists and a pronunciation test for other players, who just call him Ian. His idol is Mikhail Tal, and like the Latvian legend he plays in a speedy imaginative tactical style.

Aeroflot’s other significant result came when Hou Yifan achieved a 2605 rating performance and her first grandmaster score at men’s level. Two more such successes for the gifted Beijing 13-year-old will break the all-time age record set by Judit Polgar, the best-ever woman player, and by India’s Koneru Humpy, who both became full GMs just after their 15th birthdays.

Here is the full article.