GMArtem Uskov

Artem Uskov was born in Moscow in 2010 and began learning chess from his father at about six. Tatyana Ogneva first recognized his aptitude, and Oleg Ivanov helped establish his competitive training. He attended several of Moscow's chess schools, including Etude and the Botvinnik school, later working closely with grandmaster Vladimir Dobrov. In 2022 he became world under-12 champion and also won Moscow's under-19 championship against much older opponents. He completed his International Master requirements at twelve years and nine months, with the title recorded in 2023, and became a Grandmaster in 2025. That April he won both world under-16 rapid and blitz gold medals in Rhodes, taking the blitz event by a three-point margin. Later in 2025 he helped the Russian team win every match at the World Youth under-16 Olympiad. His early chess reading included Garry Kasparov's My Great Predecessors and Mikhail Botvinnik's selected games. His family also encouraged tennis, gymnastics, basketball and football to maintain his fitness for long tournaments.