Meet Ashwath Kaushik. He’s an eight-year-old with all the right moves. So many in fact the Singaporean defeated 37-year-old Polish chess grandmaster Jacek Stopa in the fourth round of the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open in Switzerland over the weekend.
In doing so Chess.com reports he shattered the record of the youngest player to win against a grandmaster in a classical game at the tender age of eight years, six months and 11 days.
“I felt really excited 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,” Indian-born Ashwath told the outlet.
He now joins a prestigious list of young talents who have beaten a grandmaster before the age of 10, building on talent previously applauded in the noble pursuit.
Ashwath Kaushik gained 102,4 rating points in this tournament, which takes him very close to seizing the #1 place in the world for kids under 8. As his father @kaushiksriram noted, "he showed resilience after a tough first half!" 👏 pic.twitter.com/YfbgFtWtCH
— David Llada ♞ (@davidllada) December 22, 2023
Ashwath, born in India, has been residing in Singapore with his family for six years. He had already made a name for himself by winning triple gold in the Under-8 category of the Eastern Asian Youth Championship in 2022. He was still aged six when he cleared that hurdle.
That same year he played actively around different continents due to a lack of international events in Singapore, the outlet notes. A notable achievement was becoming the World Under-8 Rapid Champion in 2022, while two years shy of the age limit. That was also the point his father realized his enormous talent.
“Till then we didn’t quite know how he would do at a global level,” Kaushik Sriram told Chess.com.
Now that question has been answered.
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