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) how to play. The two brothers started playing in the Kolty Chess Club inCampbell every Thursday night. Bhat spent his early years studying the games ofPaul Morphy andJosé Raúl Capablanca as a part of the Blue Knights.[3] "That was my steady diet," Bhat said.[4] Bhat studied chess with GMGregory Kaidanov.[5]
At 10 years and 176 days old, Bhat became the youngest national master, breaking the record previously held byJordy Mont-Reynaud (10 years and 294 days),[6]Stuart Rachels (11 years and 10 months),[7] and before that byBobby Fischer (age 13). Since then, his record has been broken three times, byHikaru Nakamura, Nicholas Nip, andSamuel Sevian. In 1998, Bhat contributed to "Whiz Kids Teach Chess" (ISBN1-58042-007-9) withEric 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, Samuel Sevian,Ray Robson, and is presently held byAwonder Liang.[8][9][10]
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."[17]
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).[18][19]
Bhat also has the second longest undefeated streak in the league (14 matches across three seasons), with Alex Lenderman holding the current record[24][25]
Along withJulio Becerra Rivero, Bhat is the only player to have multiple wins in the US Chess League against the highest-ranked US playerHikaru Nakamura[26]
Bhat graduated fromLynbrook High School in San Jose, CA, in 2002. While at Lynbrook, he played on his school's chess team, leading it to victory in local state and high-school competitions.[16]
Instead of focusing solely on chess, Bhat chose to continue his education and received a B.S. in Statistics and Political Economy from theUniversity of California, Berkeley in 2006.[27] In 2004, while an undergraduate, Bhat co-founded the East Bay Chess Club.[3]
Until receiving the Samford Fellowship, Bhat was employed atCornerstone Research, an economic consulting firm headquartered inMenlo Park, CA.
After two-and-a-half years of professional chess play, Bhat began working full-time again in December 2010. He worked atShipt, where he was the Head of Data Science.[28]
^"Jordy Mont-Reynaud's record of becoming a master at the youngest age (ten years, 209 days) has been broken byVinay Bhat (ten years, 176 days) of San Jose, California."Chess Life, July 1995, p. 8.
