Roman Savrovich Shogdzhiev (; born 4 February 2015) is a Russian chess player. A

chess prodigy Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on a square board consisting of 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. The players, referred to ...

, he became the youngest

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

in history in May 2025, at the age of 10 years, 3 months, and 21 days.

Chess career

In November 2022, Shogdzhiev won the U8 section of the

European Youth Chess Championship The European Youth Chess Championship is organized by the European Chess Union (ECU) in groups under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 years old. History The first tournament was held in 1991, and the under 8 category was introduced in 2007. Until 2002 t ...

over Marc Llari and Ali Poyraz Uzdemir due to a better Buchholz score. In October 2023, Shogdzhiev won the U8 section of the

World Youth Chess Championship The World Youth Chess Championship is a FIDE-organized worldwide chess competition for boys and girls under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. History Twelve world champions are crowned every year. Since 2015 (OR 2016), the event has been s ...

, dominating the section by winning all 11 games. At the World

Rapid Rapid(s) or RAPID may refer to: Hydrological features * Rapids, sections of a river with turbulent water flow * Rapid Creek (Iowa River tributary), Iowa, United States * Rapid Creek (South Dakota), United States, namesake of Rapid City Sport ...

and

Blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, several ships of the Prussian, Imperia ...

Chess Championships in December 2023, Shogdzhiev (at the age of 8) defeated five grandmasters: Jakhongir Vakhidov and Johan-Sebastian Christiansen in the Rapid section, and Kirill Shevchenko, Alan Pichot, and

Pranav V Pranav Venkatesh (born 13 October 2006), also known as Buddy Pranav, is an Indian chess grandmaster and the 2025 World Junior Chess Champion. Chess career Pranav began playing chess at the age of 6, and had several coaches including Viswesw ...

in the Blitz section. In December 2024, he became the youngest player to score an International Master norm at the RadnickiChess IM tournament in Belgrade after drawing in 11 moves against grandmaster Branko Damljanović in the final round. This made him the world's highest-rated under-11 player and one of three players (alongside

Faustino Oro Faustino Oro (born October 14, 2013) is an Argentine chess prodigy and International Master. Career In 2023, when he was nine, he received a rating of 2300 (classical), becoming the youngest chess player to have done so at the time. This record h ...

and

Ethan Pang Ethan Pang (born 20 March 2015) is an English chess player. Chess career He began playing chess at the age of 5 during COVID lockdowns. At the age of 7, he was chosen to represent England at the European Youth Chess Championship 2022. In June ...

) to have reached an official rating of 2300 prior to turning 10 years old. On 6 May 2025, Roman scored his 2nd International Master norm while playing in the Group A section of the Baku Open after a win in the 8th round versus IM Senthil Maran. He ended the tournament the next day on 7 May with 5.5/9 points for a 2514 performance also going up 43 rating points. On 25 May 2025, Roman became the youngest International Master at the age of 10 years, 3 months, and 21 days after playing in the RadnickiChess May IM Round Robin in

Belgrade Belgrade is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin, Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. T ...

, Serbia, scoring 7/9 points. Entering as the second seed, he scored 5 wins and 4 draws. He took the record by 5 months from

Personal life

Shogdzhiev was born on 4 February 2015 in

Elista Elista (, ;"Большой энциклопедический словарь", под ред. А. М. Прохорова. Москва и Санкт-Петербург, 1997, стр. 1402 , ''Elst'', )The approximate pronunciation of the Cyr ...

, Kalmykia, Russia. He lives with his family near

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shogdzhiev, Roman Living people 2015 births World Youth Chess Champions Russian chess players People from Elista Kalmyk sportspeople Sportspeople from Kalmykia Chess International Masters