A 3-year-old Indian boy is officially the 1,572nd-ranked player of rapid chess in the world, making him the youngest player ever ranked by the International Chess Federation.
Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha has a 6-23 record in rapid chess games, according to the International Chess Federation website. Moves in rapid chess must be completed within 10 minutes to an hour.
To achieve the rank, Sarwagya, who hails from Sagar in central India, beat out four ranked players: a 22-year-old then ranked 1,542nd, a 29-year-old then ranked 1,559th, a 20-year-old then ranked 1,696th and another player ranked 1,542nd, according to The Indian Express.
Sarwagya’s parents initially introduced chess to him so that he’d stay off of smartphones, according to ETV Bharat, then got him proper coaching once his talents became apparent.
“You ask him anything, and there’s no hesitation in answering. He can also hold his own on the board against older kids. You can see his guts when he plays,” Sarwagya’s coach, Nitin Chaurasiya, told The Indian Express.
Sarwagya narrowly beat out another Indian boy, Anish Sarkar, for the record of youngest ranked player; he achieved his ranking at 3 years, 7 months and 20 days, while Anish was ranked at 3 years, 8 months and 19 days last November, according to The Guardian.
His family and coaches are now aiming to help make Sarwagya the youngest grandmaster in history; he would need to beat out Abhimanyu Mishra, who was 12 years, 4 months and 25 days old when he became a grandmaster.
“We’ll start looking for other coaches soon who can train him for that goal. Maybe get him some online coaching too,” Mr. Chaurasiya told The Indian Express.
Sarwagya’s mother, Neha Singh Kushwaha, told ETV Bharat that “whatever may be the achievement of Sarwagya, it would be good for us. Whether our dreams will come true or not depends on hard work and God’s grace. God has blessed our child.”
