Switzerland: An eight-year-old Indian-origin boy defeated Polish chess grandmaster Jacek Stopa at the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open in Switzerland, becoming the youngest player to defeat a GM in classical chess.
Ashwath Kaushik, who represented Singapore, defeated Stopa, who at 37 is nearly five times older than him, according to a Channel News Asia report.
The previous record was set only a few weeks earlier when Serbia’s Leonid Ivanovic, several months older than Ashwath, beat 60-year-old Bulgarian grandmaster Milko Popchev at the Belgrade Open.
Currently ranked world No. 37,338 on FIDE, the International Chess Federation, the Indian citizen, who moved to Singapore in 2017.
“It’s a very exciting feeling and amazing to be able to beat my first grandmaster on the board and it’s in classical [chess], so I feel very proud of myself,” said Ashwath.
Born in India in 2015, Ashwath has already made a name for himself after winning several youth tournaments around the world – notably becoming the World Under-8 Rapid champion in 2022, per Chess.com.
