Ashwath Kaushik, an eight year-old Indian origin boy hailing from Singapore, surprised Polish chess grandmaster Jacek Stopa on the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open on Sunday. With this feat, he turned the youngest ever participant to beat a grandmaster within the classical model of the sport.
The earlier report was held by Serbia’s Leonid Ivanovic, who can also be 8 years of age however is a number of months older than Kaushik, beat 60-year-old Bulgarian grandmaster Milko Popchev on the Belgrade Open nearly every week in the past.
In response to a Channel Information Asia report, Kaushik, who represented Singapore, defeated Stopa, who at 37 is sort of 5 instances older than him.
“I felt happy with my sport and the way I performed, particularly since I used to be worse at one level however managed to come back again from that,” Kaushik, who’s ranked world No. 37,338 on FIDE, mentioned.
Kaushik finally completed the event in twelfth place after shedding in opposition to Harry Grieve and he’s set to achieve 84 score factors on the following listing, as per Chess.com.
Kaushik was born in India however has been residing in Singapore for the previous 6 years. He first got here into the limelight when he gained triple gold within the Underneath-8 class of the Jap Asian Youth Championship in 2022 when he was simply 6.
In the identical 12 months, he additionally turned the World Underneath-8 Speedy Champion whereas he was two years shy of the age restrict.
In response to Chess.com, the 8-year-old spends as much as seven hours a day on chess and solves 1000’s of puzzles on his previous chess program. His father Kaushik Sriram additionally revealed that his son has a photographic reminiscence, saying, “He solves lengthy advanced puzzles visually. He completed GM Jacob Aagaard’s total Grandmaster collection lately with out utilizing a board.”
Singaporean grandmaster and CEO of the Singapore Chess Federation Kevin Goh lauded Ashwath’s feat on ‘X’, saying, “Dad is tremendous supportive, boy is devoted, faculty permits flexibility and naturally he has pure expertise.
“Stays to be seen how far he can go as pursuits can change because the boy will get older. Nonetheless, we’re hopeful.” Goh additionally joked that as he’s solely eight years previous, Ashwath nonetheless “wants a booster cushion to succeed in the opposite facet of the board”.
He additionally attributed Ashwath’s success to the “many different coaches and supporters” on his journey.
(With company inputs)