Ashwath Kaushik, an eight-year-old chess player hailing from Singapore with Indian roots, has created a world record by becoming the youngest player to win against a chess Grandmaster in classical chess.
Kaushik achieved this feat by defeating Polish Grandmaster Jacek Stop at the Burgdorfer Stadthaus-Open in Switzerland. He broke the record set by Leonid Ivanovic, who became the first player under nine to do the same last week in Serbia against Milko Popchev. Both Ashwath and Leonid are under nine, but Ashwath is five months younger (8 years, 6 months).
In the list of youngest players winning against the GMs are Indians like the prodigy R Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh D who were just over ten years at the time.
Kaushik was seeded 59th out of 127 participants but showed impressive play throughout the tournament and ended in 12th place. Russian GM Vitaly Kunin won the tournament.
Two years ago, at the age of six, Kaushik clinched the gold medal in the under-8 category of the World Cadets and Youth Championship 2022 for Rapid and Blitz in Greece.
India’s status in chess has been impressive in the last few years with players like Vidit Gujrathi, Gukesh D, Praggnandehaa R, Erigaisi Arjun and the legend Viswanathan Anand, who started it all. We may see Indians dominating the game for years to come if the trend continues.
