When he was just 10 years old, he was already being hailed as the greatest talent in Germany since Lasker. Kasparov called him "exceptional", and Leko, who took him under his wing, didn’t shy away from using the word "genius." Will Keymer live up to the high expectations placed on him? Time will tell. For now, he lags behind the young Indians.
Vincent was born on November 15, 2004 in Mainz, a city with rich chess tradition. He learned to play at the age 5, regularly attending the Mainz Chess Classic where the world’s elite gathered and where Chess960 was held in high regard. His active participation quickly bore fruit and by the age of 10, Keymer was invited to join the German youth team, which won the European Championship in 2015 and 2017. At 11 he won the strong Vienna Open, in 2017 he became an International Master – the only one who achieved this faster in Germany was So.
Keymer made a real sensation in 2018 when, at just 14 years old, he outperformed more than 300 players and 49 GM’s to win the Grenke Open (8/9), earning him a spot in the Grenke Chess Classic, where he played against Carlsen, Caruana and Co. His performance rating of 2798 was an absolute record for his age. This success earned him his first grandmaster norm and he was awarded the title shortly before his 15th birthday, following the 2019 Grand Swiss. In his first tournament post-COVID, Vincent shared victory with Demchenko at the 2021 European Championship (8.5/11), finishing second on tiebreak.
His success in the European Championship allowed Keymer to compete in the Grand Swiss for the second time, where he finished just half a point (7/11) shy of qualifying for the Candidates Tournament. He received another chance at the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix, but again fell short. It seemed Vincent was on the verge of a breakthrough, but major successes continued to elude him. In 2022 he won relatively small round-robin tournaments including the Prague Challengers (6.5/9) and German Chess Summit (7/9), and finally crossed the 2700 rating threshold. Things could have turned around if Keymer had won the World Rapid Championship, but in the final round he let Carlsen pull half a point ahead and he had to settle for second place (9.5/13).
Fate brought him face-to-face with Magnus again in the 2023 World Cup, in the Round of 16. Vincent won the first classical game against the reigning champion but couldn’t hold on in the second and eventually lost in the tiebreaks, 2.5-3.5. Shortly afterward, Keymer performed well at the Grand Swiss, but again, it wasn’t quite enough – he finished 4th (7.5/11), missing out on the Candidates once again. Nevertheless, Keymer began 2024 ranked a career-high 12th in the world (2743) and as the top-ranked junior. It seemed like Vincent had finally come into his own and was destined to halt the rising "eastern wind." Unfortunately for him, things turned out quite differently.
Throughout the year, Keymer suffered one setback after another. Even in his victory at the Rubinstein Memorial, after starting with 6.5/7, he tarnished his performance by losing the last two games. He remains one of the world’s top players, although his championship prospects are not currently as apparent as they were.
