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8-Year-Old Chess Prodigy Makes History by Beating 37-Year-Old Grandmaster
"It's surreal," said the boy's father, who doesn't play the game
Singapore Chess Federation/ Facebook
Ashwath KaushikAn 8-year-old Chess prodigy made history over the weekend by becoming the youngest player to ever defeat a grandmaster in an official tournament match.
Ashwath Kaushik, the young player from Singapore, defeated Poland’s Jacek Stopa, 37, in the fourth round of the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open on Sunday, breaking a Chess record that was just set last month by another 8-year-old player from Serbia, Leonid Ivanovic.
But Ashwath, who is five months younger than Ivanovic, at 8 years, 6 months, and 11 days old, bested him by defeating Stopa on Sunday in Switzerland.
“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,” the boy told Chess.com after defeating the grandmaster, a title given to the highest ranking players in the game.
Singapore Chess Federation/ Facebook
Ashwath KaushikOnly 12 players in the history of classical chess have defeated a grandmaster at the age of 10 years old or younger. All 12 of those matchups have taken place since 2011. Only Ashwath and Leonid have done so at 8 years old.
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Ashwath came into the tournament ranked No. 59 among 127 competitors, according to Chess.com. The Indian-born 8 year old wound up in 12th place overall after losing his final game to Harry Grieve, whose rank is an international master — the second-highest stature to a grandmaster when it comes to chess ratings. Vitaly Kunin, a grandmaster, ultimately won the Switzerland tournament.
But Ashwath’s days of winning competitive tournaments might not be too far away. The 8 year old has reportedly made a name for himself in the chess community already in recent years, winning several youth tournaments around the globe.
Ashwath won triple gold in the Under-8 category of the Eastern Asian Youth Championship in 2022 when he was 6 years old, according to Chess.com, and later won the World Under-8 Rapid Championship tournament that same year.
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His father, Kaushik Sriram, told the website that Ashwath began learning how to play chess when he was 4 years old, using ChessKid, a website dedicated to teaching kids how to play the game. Ashwath’s father, who doesn’t play chess, said his son also routinely played games against his grandparents when he was first learning how to play.
Now, the 8 year old is spending up to seven hours a day studying the game and practicing against other competitive players.
"It's surreal as there isn't really any sports tradition in our families,” Ashwath’s father told Chess.com. “Every day is a new discovery, and we sometimes stumble in search of the right pathway for him."
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