An eight-year-old Indian boy has become the youngest chess player ever to beat a grandmaster in a classical tournament game.
Ashwath Kaushik achieved the feat on Sunday by beating 37-year-old Polish Jacek Stopa in round four of the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open in Switzerland.
According to Chess.com., Kaushik dethroned Serbian Leonid Ivanovic who became the first player to achieve the feat last month.
Ivanovic became the first player under nine to beat a grandmaster in a classical game.
At eight years, six months and 11 days, Kaushik was five months younger than his predecessor when he beat Stopa.
“It felt really exciting and amazing, and I felt proud of my game and how I played, especially since I was worse at one point but managed to come back from that,” Kaushik told Chess.com.
Chess.com said that Kaushik had prior to the commendable historic win achieved a series of victories in youth tournaments around the world, notable among them being crowned the World Under-8 Rapid champion in 2022.
The channel said Kaushik was born in India in 2015 but lives in Singapore. His parents have no history of playing chess, it added.
Kaushik finished 12th overall in the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open, something his father attributed to hard work saying his son trains on for seven hours on average daily.
“It’s surreal as there isn’t really any sports tradition in our families. Every day is a new discovery, and we sometimes stumble in search of the right pathway for him,” Kaushik Sriram told Chess.com.
Chess is a board game for two players with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid.
It’s an abstract game that does not involve hidden information and no elements of chance.
It starts with each player controlling 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns.
The White pieces move first, followed by the Black.
The game is won by checkmating the opponent's king by making its capture inescapable.
The game can also end in a draw in several ways.
