Vincent Keymer is Germany’s best chess player – and that at the age of only 17. An encounter with Garri Kasparov, probably the greatest player of all time, had a lasting influence on the Mainz player.
Vincent Keymer can still clearly remember meeting Garri Kasparov in 2015, although the current chess grandmaster was only ten years old at the time. “I was very, very young. It was a great opportunity to meet Kasparov,” Keymer replied in an online Q&A with users of chess24.com.
“It was very nice to meet one of the greatest chess players of all time. He’s really interesting as a person. We haven’t trained very much. Meeting him changes the way you think about the person. When you meet him only as a chess player, it’s different than actually meeting him and talking to him, and that’s really great,” confessed Keymer, who will soon be celebrating his 18th birthday.
The youngster is now Germany’s best chess player with an Elo rating of 2698. Since October of this year, Keymer has also belonged to the illustrious ranks of “super grandmasters”, to which only players who have achieved an Elo rating of 2700 move. So far, only 130 chess players worldwide have managed to do this, nine were under the age of 18.
Vincent Keymer knows no “secret” behind his success
Being Germany’s number one is a nice feeling. But: “I don’t know how long I’ll be up there. For me it was important that I was over 2700 for a month.”
According to Keymer, there are also “a lot of quite strong young players who are getting better and better in Germany, which is a good thing. There is a lot of potential compared to the past few years.”
Keymer confessed that he “didn’t know much about chess” when he started playing the game. “I don’t come from a chess family. I found it interesting so I gave it a try and went to the local chess club and played a few games and tournaments.”
He doesn’t see a special “secret” behind his success. “If you want to get better, the most important thing is that you work a lot and play a lot.”