Emily Chan
While most of us were stuffing random objects into our mouths and drawing on walls during the early years of our lives, child prodigies were mastering their skills in subjects like math, music, art, and chess.
Recently, an 8-year-old boy made history for being the youngest person ever to defeat a grandmaster.
The boy, Ashwath Kaushik, was born in India but currently lives in Singapore. During an official tournament match, he bested 37-year-old Jacek Stopa from Poland.
In the fourth round of the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open in Switzerland, Ashwath broke a chess record that was set by another 8-year-old player just last month.
Previously, Leonid Ivanovic from Serbia, replaced Awonder Liang as the youngest player and the first under the age of nine to beat a grandmaster.
However, his victory didn’t last long. Ashwath, who is five months younger than Leonid, became the new record holder.
Grandmasters are titles awarded to the best chess players in the world by the world chess organization FIDE. Aside from World Champion, it is the highest title a chess player can earn, and only 2,100 people have been recognized.
“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 after his win.
In the history of classical chess, only 12 players have won against a grandmaster at the age of 10 or younger. All of those achievements have occurred since 2011. Furthermore, Ashwath and Leonid have been the only ones to do so at 8 years old.
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