8-year-old Singapore boy of Indian origin beats 37-year-old chess grandmaster from Poland

Chess has been, for many years, a sport wherein Indians have excelled. A brand new prodigy seems to be Ashwath Kaushik, an Indian-origin boy from Singapore, aged 8 years, who beat 37-year-old Grandmaster Jacek Stopa of Poland, setting a brand new report for being the youngest winner in opposition to a GM in classical chess.

Ashwath Kaushik was exactly 8 years, 6 months, and 11 days previous, as per the data obtainable, when he beat GM Jacek Stopa of their sport within the Burgdorfer Stadthaus-Open, held on February 16-18, 2024, in Switzerland.

Reacting to the win, a chess journalist commented on X: “8-year-olds at the moment are beating grandmasters, right here’s Ashwath shattering the report because the youngest ever. At some level quickly I feel we’ll see 10-year-olds reaching the GM title.”

The earlier report for the feat now achieved by Ashwath had been held by Serbian teenager Leonid Ivanovic, who was 8 years, 11 months, and seven days previous when he defeated 59-year-old Bulgarian GM Milko Popchev.

While Ashwath misplaced his subsequent sport to 22-year-old English participant Harry Grieve, his achievement remains to be large and bolsters all his wins over the past few years.

According to a report within the Singapore publication The Straits Times, Ashwath — born to Rohini Ramachandran and Sriram Kaushik — is an Indian citizen whose household moved to Singapore seven years in the past, and the younger chess participant represents Singapore internationally.

“It’s a really thrilling feeling and superb to have the ability to beat my first grandmaster on the board and it’s in classical [chess], so I really feel very proud of myself,” stated Ashwath, as quoted by The Straits Times.

The Singapore paper, which interviewed the household, reported that Ashwath performed chess for about 2 hours 5 days per week, and 6-7 hours each day on weekends; favored Lego blocks, jigsaw puzzles, biking; and loved outings to Singapore Zoo or Universal Studios Singapore. All this exercise, he stated, was enjoyable and “[it] helps your mind get higher and smarter, as a result of in chess you want rather a lot of considering to seek out the perfect strikes”.