GMAndy Woodward

Andy Woodward received his first chessboard for his fifth birthday and learned the moves from his father. He initially played against himself, then worked through lessons on ChessKid. He began rated tournament play at seven. When his improvement stalled, he started studying openings more seriously and discovered that he preferred books to online material. He became an international master in 2022. His pursuit of the grandmaster title included a frustrating near miss at the SPICE Cup, where a strong enough result did not count as a norm because the field failed a technical requirement. With support from his family, coach Yaroslav Zherebukh and sponsor Hikaru Nakamura, he continued competing. He secured the final norm in Jeddah in January 2024, becoming a grandmaster at thirteen. In 2026 he also won Chess.com's Hyperbullet Championship, defeating Andrew Tang in the final.