Three-year-old Anish Sarkar became the youngest-rated chess player in history. (PTI)
At three years, eight months and 19 days, Kolkata’s Anish Sarkar became the youngest-rated chess player in history on Friday.
Born on January 26, 2021, Sarkar picked up the sport a year ago and made his competitive debut in October when he played in the West Bengal State Under-9 Open. By defeating two rated players, he secured 5.5 out of 8 points to finish 24th. In an exhibition match played simultaneously, he also got an opportunity to play against India No. 1 and world No. 4 Grandmaster Arjun Erigais.
A week later, Sarkar competed in the West Bengal State Under-13 Open, a tournament where he met the requirement of facing five rated players which eventually earned him the initial FIDE rating of 1555. The ratings were updated by the world body on Thursday.
In doing so, he surpassed the previous record set by Tejas Tiwari, who had become the youngest FIDE-rated player at five years, India’s second GM and Sarkar’s coach Dibyendu Barua told the Press Trust of India.
“Anish definitely has potential but he has a long way to go,” Barua told PTI. “We’ve put him in a special group, where he trains for seven to eight hours,” said Barua.
Sarkar’s mother said they had ‘zero knowledge’ of chess. “We introduced him to different YouTube channels, including cartoons like Peppa Pig, but he was drawn to chess videos,” his mother Reshma told PTI.
She added: “By January, his interest had grown, and he would watch those videos endlessly. I bought him a chessboard and pieces, thinking it was safe for him to handle even if I couldn’t supervise him closely. Since he was already good with numbers and counting, chess quickly became his favourite. That’s when we decided to place him under the guidance of Dibyendu Sir.”
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