On Sunday, eight-year-old Ashwath Kaushik from Singapore smashed the document to turn out to be the youngest participant ever to defeat a grandmaster in classical chess.

Only a month prior Leonid Ivanovic from Serbia dethroned GM Awonder Liang to turn out to be the first participant beneath the age of 9 to defeat a grandmaster in a classical match recreation.

Nevertheless, data are made to be damaged, and this one did not final for lengthy. On the twenty second Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open in Switzerland, that occurred simply exterior the capital Bern this weekend, Indian-born Ashwath from Singapore shattered that document by virtually 5 months.

The historic triumph got here in spherical 4 towards 37-year-old GM Jacek Stopa from Poland. Ashwath had already received his first three video games and clinched his fourth straight win in a powerful recreation.

Reflecting on his achievement, Ashwath advised Chess.com: “It felt actually thrilling and superb, and I felt happy with my recreation and the way I performed, particularly since I used to be worse at one level however managed to return again from that.”

With this triumph, Ashwath, on the tender age of eight years, six months, and 11 days, grew to become the youngest participant ever to defeat a grandmaster in a classical match recreation.

He now joins a prestigious record of younger abilities who’ve overwhelmed a grandmaster earlier than the age of 10. Amongst them is GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, now a chess famous person ranked fifteenth on the planet, who was aged 9 years and 7 months when he scored his first win.

One other notable participant on the record is that of the world’s youngest grandmaster ever, GM Abhimanyu Mishra, who beat GM James Tarjan when he was aged 9 years and 10 months.

Youngest Gamers To Defeat A GM In Classical Chess (February 2024)

Ashwath, seeded 59th among the many 127 individuals, completed the match in twelfth place after dropping his last recreation towards IM Harry Grieve. A formidable score efficiency of 2270 means he’s set to realize 84 score factors on the following record, based on Chess-Outcomes. The match was received by GM Vitaly Kunin.

Ashwath, born in India, has been residing in Singapore along with his household for six years. He had already made a reputation for himself by profitable triple gold within the Below-8 class of the Jap Asian Youth Championship in 2022. He was nonetheless six years outdated.

That very same yr he performed actively round completely different continents resulting from an absence of worldwide occasions in Singapore. A notable achievement was changing into the World Below-8 Fast Champion in 2022, whereas two years shy of the age restrict. That was additionally the purpose his father realized his huge expertise. “Until then we did not fairly know the way he would do at a world degree,” Kaushik Sriram tells Chess.com.

He says his son discovered the foundations of chess on the age of 4, because of ChessKid. “He picked it up on his personal, taking part in along with his grandparents,” he recalled, stating that neither he nor his spouse play chess.

He has been following his son’s progress with pleasure, but additionally a little bit of shock. “It is surreal as there is not actually any sports activities custom in our households. Day-after-day is a brand new discovery, and we typically stumble looking for the proper pathway for him.”

Ashwath Kaushik gained 102,4 score factors on this match, which takes him very near seizing the #1 place on the planet for teenagers beneath 8. As his father @kaushiksriram famous, “he confirmed resilience after a troublesome first half!” 👏 pic.twitter.com/YfbgFtWtCH

— David Llada ♞ (@davidllada) December 22, 2023

Now Ashwath spends as much as seven hours a day on chess and solves hundreds of puzzles on his outdated chess program. It helps to have what his father describes as a photographic reminiscence.

“He solves lengthy complicated puzzles visually. He completed GM Jacob Aagaard‘s whole Grandmaster sequence lately with out utilizing a board.”

In October I used to be requested if I may tackle a promising younger child as a pupil. I helped the daddy get in contact with the superb coach GM Stany.
Now the child has damaged the document for being the youngest ever to beat a GM in a classical recreation.
Very happy with Tough Stany from…

— GM Jacob Aagaard (@GMJacobAagaard) February 18, 2024

Ashwath now works with a handful of robust coaches. One in every of them is GM Kevin Goh Wei Ming, CEO of the Singapore Chess Federation, who can testify to the teenager’s exceptional tactical abilities. He reveals that Ashwath is presently a member of their Below 14 squad, coached by GMs Thomas Luther and Andrey Kvon.

“He’s tactically very sharp, primarily resulting from numerous apply and we are attempting to construct his strategical understanding,” Goh says.

He offers an instance of this well-known research by IM Yochanan Afek, which the eight-year-old solved in beneath three minutes earlier than bedtime. Can you discover how White wins?

Goh added:

“His household is extraordinarily supportive and in addition doesn’t put extreme strain on him—letting the boy pursue his personal targets. We’re happy with Ashwath, but additionally don’t set any targets for him and let him develop at his personal tempo. Him breaking this world document is solely a bonus.”

For Ashwath, the long run appears to be like vibrant. Talking to a Singaporean newspaper final yr, he mentioned he hopes to interrupt 2000 and get his candidate grasp title, after which finally attain 2700 “by taking part in attacking chess,” like his idol GM Mikhail Tal.

When requested if he intends to proceed taking part in competitively, he assured: “Sure, until I turn out to be the world champion.”

Ashwath is part of a technology of prodigies that appear to be rewriting the norms of the sport with extraordinary outcomes that might be virtually unheard of 5 to 10 years in the past. Most youngsters barely know the chess guidelines on the age of eight, however now they appear able to competing with robust titled gamers.

“8 is the brand new 12,” GM Anish Giri said on X/Twitter.

8 is the brand new 12 https://t.co/ek7W7IIKwB

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) February 18, 2024

Specifically, the category of 2015 seems to be a formidable pressure. Along with Ivanovic, Chess.com additionally lined sensational outcomes by WCM Bodhana Sivanandan, who surprised the chess world with triple gold within the World Youth Chess Championships, and Roman Shogdzhiev, who beat 5 grandmasters within the World Fast and Blitz Championships.

Who is aware of, possibly we’ll quickly be seeing 10-year-olds changing into grandmasters!