Vincent Keymer Is Quietly Becoming One Of The World's Very Best

India, China and the central Asian countries—with all the incredible grandmaster talent they are producing—will dominate the future of chess, right?

Not if GM Vincent Keymer has anything to do with it.

The 20-year-old German, a prodigy in his youth, is busy proving that Europe still does have up-and-coming contenders to take GM Magnus Carlsen's throne.

This week, Keymer can be seen competing at the European Team Chess Championships in Batumi, Georgia, and it's well worth a look.

The Euros is a more low-key event than the U.S. Championships with its big-name super grandmasters on the other side of the Atlantic in Saint Louis.

However, it remains an important over-the-board tournament with most of Europe's best playing there (with the notable exception of Norway and its star Carlsen).

And, as he has done all year, Keymer is making some serious gains while playing for his country.

With an unbeaten 7/9 so far, the Mainz-born son of two professional musicians has just hit a career peak world number six in the live rankings, according to the website 2700chess.com.

That makes him the second highest-ranked European in the world after he edged ahead of GM Anish Giri. On Tuesday, Keymer and Giri played out a draw as Germany and the Netherlands met in Round 9.

It has already been a stellar, breakout year for Keymer so far.

In February, he scored a career-best result at the Weissenhaus Grand Slam in Wangels, Germany, by defeating Carlsen in the classical Freestyle format.

Keymer then beat the U.S. champion GM Fabiano Caruana 1.5-0.5 in the final to win the event, and the $200,000 first prize, outright. “The greatest success of my career,” he called it. But more was to come.

In August, Keymer rewrote the script as he dominated the Quantbox GM tournament in Chennai, India, with an unbeaten 7/9. In doing so, he beat several of India's golden generation players. The hosts surely can't have gone down well in the heartland of India's recent chess boom.

Keymer's rating subsequently passed the 2750 mark in the live ratings and he reached the world top 10 for the first time.

By October, Keymer's ranking had jumped to world number nine. With the results he is posting right now, Keymer looks nailed on to hold onto sixth when the official ratings come out at the end of this month.

Keymer is not the only German making waves this year. GM Matthias Bluebaum has already secured his spot in the 2026 FIDE Candidates tournament after an impressive second-place finish at the Grand Swiss in September.

Going into the FIDE World Cup in Goa, India, next month, Keymer will be battling hard to grab his own place at the Candidates.

But world number six or not, it will still be a tough ask.