From 9-year-old prodigies to 84-year grandmother, chess has no age limit

A day after 55-year-old Vasyl Ivanchuk avenged his 2009 World Cup defeat against Wesley So, TOI chronicles the intriguing statistics of the 45th FIDE Chess Olympiad, where nearly 2,000 participants from almost 200 countries converged in Budapest.
Fifteen years after announcing his retirement from the game following a loss against the then 16-year-old So, Ivanchuk recently reversed his decision and helped Ukraine in stunning top seeds United States in the fourth round at the Olympiad on Friday, demonstrating that chess has no age limit.
While 263 Grandmasters in both the Open and Women sections are competing in the biannual event, 84-year-old granny Pauline Woodward Marain holds the record of being the oldest participant, with the Guernsey women's team making its debut in the Olympiad.
As many as five nine-year-old prodigies are representing their respective federations in the women section. These include World U-8 champion and British Chess sensation Bodhana Sivanandan representing England on the fifth board, Skye Attieh of Lebanon, Arianna Balcombe from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Ginger Jubitana of the Netherlands Antilles and Grenada's Tauriel AB Frank. Both Woodward and Bodhana have secured a win each and suffered a defeat at the end of the fourth round.
The 80-year-old WIM Rani Hamid from Bangladesh is participating in her 20th Olympiad and is the most experienced player in the biannual tournament.
In the open section, 74-year-old Clifford Shaw from the Cayman Islands is the most senior participant, while 11-year-olds Daniel Combs of Guam and Mazen Fandi from Syria are the youngest in the field.
With an average age of 55.6 years, the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg are the oldest teams. The Mongolia squad, with an average age of 19.4 years, is the youngest participating team in the Olympiad.