Vincent Keymer: ‘I was just a child being curious about what chess was’

Every sport loves its wunderkinds — those marked for greatness early on, a picture of promise.

Not too long ago, German Grandmaster Vincent Keymer was one such child prodigy. The man who recognised his potential? Chess legend Garry Kasparov.

“Vincent is incredibly talented and can definitely make his way to the top of the chess world,” proclaimed Kasparov in 2015, after a two-hour training and analysis session with a 10-year-old Keymer in Berlin.

The German media soon hailed Keymer as the finest chess talent to emerge from the country since Emanuel Lasker, who reigned as world champion for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921.

Over the next decade, Keymer steadily worked towards the lofty target set for him by those around him. The IM title came in 2017; the GM tag followed two years later.

Consistent performances in prestigious events have seen him establish himself among the global chess elite.

Early in 2025, Keymer provided a stunning exhibition of his capabilities when he won the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam against a world-class field on home turf.

He beat Alireza Firouzja, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana — in that order — in the final three knockout games, to achieve what he believes is the biggest tournament victory of his young career.

The burden of expectation, which has crushed many a wunderkind, has seemingly not affected Keymer. The key, according to him, is naivety.

“I didn’t really think about it [being a child prodigy] at the time. I was really quite naive in that sense. I just enjoyed chess.

“I played tournaments and tried to make things right with school. That’s pretty much all I did, and it worked,” says Keymer, speaking from the sidelines of the Chennai Grand Masters 2025.

It also helped that Keymer came from an environment far removed from the mechanical rigidity of chess.

His father, Christof, is a concert pianist and lecturer in piano at the Hanover University of Music, while his mother, Heike, is a cellist.

In fact, Keymer is a pianist himself — or rather, used to be one. “I played piano as a child, but that’s something that was sacrificed for the sake of chess. I haven’t played it for at least seven or eight years.”

Considering his family background, the fact that Keymer took up chess and stuck with it is a surprising twist of fate.

“Let’s put it this way: chess sought out Vincent; not the other way around,” said German chess coach Bernd Vokler in 2015 to  Focus magazine, having witnessed Keymer’s growth from close quarters.

Keymer picked up a chessboard by chance when he was five and was taught the rules by his parents. Spoiler alert — it didn’t take long for him to beat them.

“Chess doesn’t really run in the family. I was just a child being curious about what it was. It could have been any other game as well. I think you can call it fate in some way. I really liked it from the start. Turns out I had some talent for it,” says Keymer.

The next stage of his chess lessons came from a local club in Saulheim, his hometown, relying on DVD tutorials. Winning the regional tournament was only a natural progression, and soon he was garnering appreciation from the likes of Kasparov.

While fate got him into chess, Keymer made sure the sport remained fun for him — something he advocates to prevent young players from burning out early.

“It’s important that children like playing chess. Of course, you can also make great chess players by pushing someone to certain limits. But then you will often realise they end up quitting at a young age because it’s not their true passion. At a certain point, you need to give so much of your life to chess that if you don’t really enjoy it, you just don’t do it,” points out Keymer.

While he has undoubtedly earned his position in the global chess scene, the biggest boost to his profile — at least in India — came thanks to his role as a second for D. Gukesh during the Indian’s title win at the World Championship final in 2024.

“He [Gukesh] texted me when I was in Malmo for a tournament. He said he wanted to talk to me personally. I really appreciated him having the conversation directly, and not through a manager or coach.

I think that was important because it’s about professionalism. You need a good atmosphere in the team, and I need to feel like I really want to give my 100 per cent support to him for that match,” says Keymer.

While working with Gukesh gave him a peripheral view of the long drawn out and tense nature of a World Championship, Keymer believes the experience hasn’t explicitly seeped into the way he plays. “I believe chess players are a combination of everything we know. I do believe it increased my knowledge and my horizon.

“Maybe I’ll implement things in my play that I never did before. I think it can help me. But at the same time, he [Gukesh] is a very different player. So I cannot just try to copy him — and I would never try to,” says Keymer.

Having gathered an insider’s perspective on a world title challenge, Keymer is ready to mount one himself.

The first step would be to qualify for the Candidates, a tournament in which he is yet to make an appearance. Keymer is leaving all options open to break that duck.

“The two obvious choices [qualification routes] are Grand Swiss and World Cup. I have played well in all my Grand Swiss tournaments and World Cups. It could have gone even better if there wasn’t a certain Carlsen always stopping you.

I have already won the German Championship. So, in case a tournament like this one [Chennai Grand Masters] goes really well, I might start to play events for the FIDE circuit points,” adds Keymer.

Having successfully navigated the perilous developmental stages, Keymer has positioned himself well for the next phase of his career — where prophecies will be put to the test, promises challenged by the present, and expectations countered by reality.