Eight-year-old chess prodigy becomes youngest player to beat grandmaster
Ashwath Kaushik overcame Jacek Stopa at the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open to break the record
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
Eight-year-old chess prodigy Ashwath Kaushik has become the youngest player to defeat a grandmaster in classical chess, beating Poland’s Jacek Stopa at the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open in Switzerland.
Indian-born Ashwath, who lives in Singapore, defeated 37-year-old Stopa to break the record set a month earlier by Leonid Ivanovic from Serbia when he beat grandmaster Milko Popchev, according to the Chess.com website.
Ivanovic is also aged eight but was born five months before Ashwath.
“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,” Ashwath told Chess.com.
Ashwath learned to play the game at the age of four and became a world under-eight rapid champion in 2022, the website said.
“He picked it up on his own, playing with his grandparents,” his father, Kaushik Sriram, added. “It’s surreal as there isn’t really any sports tradition in our families. Every day is a new discovery, and we sometimes stumble in search of the right pathway for him.”
Ashwath finished the tournament in 12th place after losing to international master Harry Grieve.
Reuters
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments