Child prodigy

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A child prodigy is a child who is very clever indeed at an early age, and can do things that people can usually only do when they are grown up.

Child prodigies are often musicians, mathematicians or chess players.

A child prodigy does not always grow up to be a world-famous genius. Some of them are not able to keep their exceptional gifts going into adulthood.

The composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy. He could play the harpsichord when he was three, and by the time he was six his father was taking him on concert tours to show off his son's talent. Fortunately Mozart did grow up to be a world-famous composer.

The composer William Crotch was also a child prodigy. He could play God Save the King with both hands on the piano when he was two. But Crotch did not become famous like Mozart. He just grew up to be a good musician.

There may have been many other child prodigies who never became clever adults at all, or who died before they could become famous. Sometimes their childhoods are very difficult because people expect so much of them.

The great German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss was an exceptional child prodigy. It is said that when he was three he saw a mistake his father had made when adding up the wage bills. Another famous child prodigy was the Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton who, at the age of 13, was not only a brilliant at maths but also spoke 13 languages.

In 2002 a 12-year-old Ukranian boy called Sergey Karjakin became the youngest ever Grandmaster at chess.

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