MOSCOW -- Russian news reports say a prominent young chess grandmaster has died after falling from a balcony apparently while undertaking the extreme sport of parkour.

The reports cited police as saying 20-year-old Yuri Eliseev died late Saturday after falling from the 12th story of his apartment building in Moscow.

Eliseev was the world under-16 chess champion in 2012 and was given grandmaster status at age 17.

The reports said Eliseev died while trying to reach the balcony of a neighbouring apartment. He was described as a practitioner of parkour, which involves climbing, jumping to difficult perches and acrobatic moves.