The Ages Chess Players Learned the Game

 

Here are some the ages of when some of the chessplayers learned the game:

·      Michael Adams learned chess at age 6, taught by his father, Bill.

·      Alexander Alekhine learned at the age of 7 from his older brother. His mother also played chess and he learned chess from his relatives.

·      Viswanathan Anand learned the game of chess at age 6, taught by his mother.

·      Adolf Anderssen learned at the age of 9 from his father.

·      Lebon Aronian was taught to play chess by his sister Lilit at the age of 9.

·      Maurice Ashley learned chess at age 12 from his brother.

·      Etienne Bacrot started to play chess at the age of 4.

·      Hans Berliner learned chess at age 13.

·      Henry Bird learned chess at age 15 by watching chess players in coffee houses.

·      Henry Blackburne was 19 years old before he learned chess. He learned the game from a chess book he had purchased.

·      Humphrey Bogart learned chess at 13 and was later a chess hustler.

·      Issac Boleslavsky learned at age 9 at the House of Pioneers in the USSR.

·      Mikhail Botvinnik learned at the age of 12 from his family.

·      de la Bourdonnais learned at 19 while in college.

·      David Bronstein learned chess at age 6 from his grandfather.

·      Walter Browne learned the game at age 8, somewhere in Brooklyn.

·      Capablanca claimed he learned chess at the age of 4 by watching his father play chess against friends.

·      Mangus Carlsen learned chess at the age of 5, taught by his father.  He was playing tournament chess at age 8.

·      Fabiano Caruana learned chess at age 10.

·      Ray Charles learned at age 35 in a hospital to fight drug addiction.

·      Irving Chernev learned at the age of 12 from his father.

·      Mikhail Chigorin learned at the age of 16 from a school teacher in Russia.

·      Arthur Dake learned chess at age 17.  By age 21, he was one of the top players in the world.

·      Arnold Denker learned at the age of 12 from his oldest brother.

·      Jan Donner learned at the age of 14, taught by his friends.

·      Max Euwe learned at the age of 9 from his parents.

·      Larry Evans learned at age 12 from his brothers and his father.

·      Reuben Fine learned chess at the age of 8 from his cousin.

·      Bobby Fischer learned at the age of 8 from his older sister, Joan.

·      Nona Gaprindashvili learned at the age of 5 from her five older brothers.

·      Boris Gelfand learned chess at the age of 4, taught by his parents.

·      Anish Giri learned chess at age 7, taught by his Nepalese father and Russian mother.

·      Gligoric learned about age 12 from a boarder in his parents’ home.

·      Robert Heubner learned at the age of 5 from his father.

·      Hou Yifan learned chess at age 3 and was taking chess lessons at age 5.

·      Vassily Ivanchuk learned to play chess at the age of 6.

·      Igor Ivanov learned at age 5 from his mother.

·      John Jarecki learned at the age of 6 from his father (a medical doctor).

·      Gata Kamsky learned chess at age 7.

·      Mona Karff learned at age 9 from her father, Aviv Ratner.

·      Sergey Karjakin learned how to play chess at age 5.  At age 11, he was an International Master.  He holds the record of youngest grandmaster at the age of 12 years, 7 months.

·      Anatoly Karpov learned chess at the age of 4 at the Pioneers Palace.

·      Garry Kasparov learned at age 5 from his father, who later died in a car crash.

·      Paul Keres learned at the age of 4, probably from his parents.

·      Ratmir Kholmov learned chess at age 12, and was a master by age 15.

·      George Koltanoski learned chess at the age of 14 from his father, a diamond cutter.

·      Koneru Humpy started playing chess at the age of 5.

·      Alexandra Kosteniuk learned to play chess at 5 from her father.

·      Vladimir Kramnik learned chess at the age of 4 from his father.

·      Bent Larsen learned at age 6, probably from his family.

·      Edward Lasker learned at age 6 from his father.

·      Emanuel Lasker learned at age 11 from his older brother.

·      Marc Leski learned chess at age 14.

·      Bill Lombardy learned at age 9 from a neighbor.

·      Frank Marshall learned chess at age 10 from his father.

·      Mecking learned at age 6, probably from his family.

·      Vera Menchik learned at age 9 from her father.

·      Paul Morphy learned at age 8 from his father.

·      Hikaru Nakamura learned how to play chess at the age of 4 and was coached by FIDE Master Sunil Weeramantry, his stepfather.

·      Nimzovich learned chess at the age of 8.

·      Victor Palciuskas learned at age 5 from his uncle.

·      Louis Paulsen learned at age 5 from his father.

·      Petrosian learned chess from his parent at age 8. His parents died a few years later during World War II.

·      Philidor learned at age 10 from his musician friends.

·      Pillsbury learned at age 15.

·      Susan Polgar learned chess at the age of 4 from her parents.  Judit and Sofia also learned the game at age 4.

·      Stuart Rachels learned at age 8 from an older brother.

·      Samuel Reshevesky was playing chess at 4 and giving simuls at age 5.

·      Ray Robson learned chess at age 3.

·      Rossolimo learned chess at age 7 from his mother.

·      Diane Savereide learned chess at age 17 from her brother. A few years later she was the top woman chess player in the U.S.

·      Gabriel Schwartzman says he learned chess at the age of 2.

·      Seirawan learned chess in Seattle at the age of 12.

·      Sam Shankland learned chess at age 11 from the Berkeley Chess School program.

·      Vassily Smyslov learned chess at the age of 6 from his father (a Russian chess master) and from the chess books in his father's library.

·      Wesley So was 6 when his father taught him how to play chess.

·      Soltis learned chess at age 9.

·      Spassky learned chess at the age of 5.

·      Steinitz learned chess at the age of 12 from friends.

·      Mir Sultan Khan learned modern chess at age 21. Prior to that, he learned Indian chess at a much younger age.

·      Peter Svidler learned how to play chess at age 6.

·      Mikhail Tal learned at the age of 8 by watching patients play chess at the hospital his father worked at.

·      Tarrasch learned chess at the age of 15 from a chess book.

·      George Thomas learned chess at the age of 13 from his mother, a top British Ladies' Champion.

·      Veselin Topalov learned at age 8 from his father.

·      Bill Wall learned chess at age 10, taught be his parents.

·      Norman Whitaker learned at age 14 from his father.

·      Michael Wilder learned at the age of 6 from his father.

·      Artur Yusupov learned chess at the age of 6 and trained at the Moscow Young Pioneers’ Palace

·      Anna Zatonskih learned chess at age 5 from her parents, both strong players.