Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha has bested a fellow Indian chess prodigy to become the youngest player in the sport’s history to bag an official FIDE rating. He has achieved what others may have deemed unimaginable at the small age of just three years, seven months and 20 days, as per the New York Times’ sports branch The Atlantic.

This particular record was previously set by Kolkata’s Anish Sarkar at three years, eight months and 19 days old in November last year.

Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha becomes world’s youngest rated chess player

With the international governing body of chess needing a player to secure points against at least five opponents in official events, the 3-year-old Indian chess star has bagged his first rating of 1572. He clinched the rank by beating five opponents out of the eight he faced at the respective matches.

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According to chess.com, the chess players Sarwagya defeated to score this massive milestone happen to be nearly ten times his age. Some of them are 22-year-old Abhijeet Awasthi (at 24th RCC International FIDE Rapid Cup in Mangaluru), 29-year-old Shubham Chourasiya (2nd Shri Dadaji Dhuniwale Open in Khandwa), 20-year-old Yogesh Namdev (Dr Ajit Kasliwal Memorial All India Open Rapid in Indore) and finally Abhijeet Awasthi again (1st GH Raisoni Memorial in Chhindwara).

About Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha

Born in 2022, the three-year-old hails from Sagar in Madhya Pradesh. Just days ago, his father Siddharth Singh told The Indian Express that his family pushed the young boy into chess last year, owing to how his “mind was a sponge and he would pick up things very quickly.”

Within a week of learning about the sport, Sarwagya could name “all the pieces accurately,” his dad added.

In light of his glorious achievement, Singh also told ETV Bharat, “It’s a matter of great pride and honour for us that our son has become the youngest chess player in the world to achieve a FIDE rating.”

Already hoping for him to hold magnificent ambitions, his father told the outlet, “We want him to become a grandmaster.” As per the current rankings, Sarwagya would have to break the record scripted by Abhimanyu Mishra, who achieved the youngest grandmaster title at 12 years, four months and 25 days.

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“He learnt the rules and the movements of chess so quickly that we felt we should further educate him on chess. We hired a coach and arranged for personal classes. He played chess for about six hours a day and then became an expert,” Singh shared further with ETV.