Vinay Bhat
| Vinay Bhat | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Full name | Vinay Subrahmanya Bhat |
| Country |
 United States
|
| Born |
June 4, 1984 Santa Clara, CA, United States |
| Title | Grandmaster |
| FIDE rating | 2519 (April 2017) (FIDE), 2606 (USCF) |
| Peak rating | 2549 (FIDE), 2606 (USCF) |
Vinay Bhat (born June 4, 1984) is an American chess Grandmaster.
Bhat first learned to play chess at the age of 6. His mother taught him and his older brother, Harish (now a professor at UC Merced system) how to play. The two brothers started playing in the Kolty Chess Club in Campbell every Thursday night. Bhat spent his early years studying the games of Paul Morphy and José Raúl Capablanca as a part of the Blue Knights. "That was my steady diet," Bhat said. Bhat studied chess with GM Gregory Kaidanov.
At 10 years and 176 days old, Bhat became the youngest national master, breaking the record previously held by Jordy Mont-Reynaud (10 years and 294 days),Stuart Rachels (11 years and 10 months), and before that by Bobby Fischer (age 13). Since then, his record has been broken three times, by California players Hikaru Nakamura, Nicholas Nip, and Samuel Sevian. In 1998, Bhat contributed to "Whiz Kids Teach Chess" () with Eric Schiller.
At the age of 15 years and 10 months, Bhat became an International Master, at the time the youngest ever in U.S. history; this record was later surpassed by Hikaru Nakamura and is presently held by Ray Robson.
After taking an extended break from chess, Bhat began to play regularly again in 2008. On April 22, 2008, it was announced that Vinay was awarded the 2008 Samford Fellowship. This fellowship was created to "identify and assist the best American chessmasters under the age of twenty-five by providing top-level coaching, strong competition and access to study materials."
Bhat was awarded with the title of International Grandmaster in October 2008 when he crossed 2500 FIDE, with his three Grandmaster norms coming from Qingdao (China, 2002), Balaguer (Spain, 2006), and Balaguer (Spain, 2007).
Bhat is known to prefer the following openings:
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