Maxime Vachier-Lagrave became a GM at 14. Winner of the Lausanne Young Masters in 2006 and French Champion in 2007 at the age of 16.

He caused a stir when he first took part in the Biel Festival. Vachier remained undefeated after 10 games and won the Grandmaster Tournament at aged 18, beating two former world no. 2's (Ivanchuk and Morozevich). His eighth round victory with the black pieces over Morozevich was selected as the best game in the Festival.

Vachier became Junior World Champion in 2009. Former winners of the same event include Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, and Viswanathan Anand who all went on to become World Champions.

Also notable is his excellent 7½/13 (+2) at the Wijk aan Zee A group 2011. His only loss being to tournament winner Hikaru Nakamura.