8-Year-Old Ashwath Beats Chess Grandmaster, Sets New World Record

On Sunday, eight-year-old Ashwath Kaushik from Singapore smashed the record to become the youngest player ever to defeat a grandmaster in classical chess.

Just a month prior Leonid Ivanovic from Serbia dethroned GM Awonder Liang to become the first player under the age of nine to defeat a grandmaster in a classical tournament game.

However, records are made to be broken, and this one didn't last for long. At the 22nd Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open in Switzerland, that took place just outside the capital Bern this weekend, Indian-born Ashwath from Singapore shattered that record by almost five months.

The historic triumph came in round four against 37-year-old GM Jacek Stopa from Poland. Ashwath had already won his first three games and clinched his fourth straight win in an impressive game.

Reflecting on his achievement, Ashwath told Chess.com: "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."

The game has been annotated by GM Rafael Leitao.

With this triumph, Ashwath, at the tender age of eight years, six months, and 11 days, became the youngest player ever to defeat a grandmaster in a classical tournament game.

He now joins a prestigious list of young talents who have beaten a grandmaster before the age of 10. Among them is GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, now a chess superstar ranked 15th in the world, who was aged nine years and seven months when he scored his first win.

Another notable player on the list is that of the world's youngest grandmaster ever, GM Abhimanyu Mishra, who beat GM James Tarjan when he was aged nine years and 10 months.

Youngest Players To Defeat A GM In Classical Chess (February 2024)

Ashwath, seeded 59th among the 127 participants, finished the tournament in 12th place after losing his final game against IM Harry Grieve. An impressive rating performance of 2270 means he is set to gain 84 rating points on the next list, according to Chess-Results. The tournament was won by GM Vitaly Kunin.

Ashwath, born in India, has been residing in Singapore with his family for six years. He had already made a name for himself by winning triple gold in the Under-8 category of the Eastern Asian Youth Championship in 2022. He was still six years old.

That same year he played actively around different continents due to a lack of international events in Singapore. A notable achievement was becoming the World Under-8 Rapid Champion in 2022, while two years shy of the age limit. That was also the point his father realized his enormous talent. "Till then we didn't quite know how he would do at a global level," Kaushik Sriram tells Chess.com.

He says his son learned the rules of chess at the age of four, thanks to ChessKid. "He picked it up on his own, playing with his grandparents," he recalled, pointing out that neither he nor his wife play chess.

He has been following his son's progress with excitement, but also a bit of surprise. "It's surreal as there isn't really any sports tradition in our families. Every day is a new discovery, and we sometimes stumble in search of the right pathway for him."

Ashwath Kaushik gained 102,4 rating points in this tournament, which takes him very close to seizing the #1 place in the world for kids under 8. As his father @kaushiksriram noted, "he showed resilience after a tough first half!" 👏 pic.twitter.com/YfbgFtWtCH

— David Llada ♞ (@davidllada) December 22, 2023

Now Ashwath spends up to seven hours a day on chess and solves thousands of puzzles on his old chess program. It helps to have what his father describes as a photographic memory.

"He solves long complex puzzles visually. He finished GM Jacob Aagaard's entire Grandmaster series recently without using a board."

In October I was asked if I could take on a promising young kid as a student. I helped the father get in touch with the excellent trainer GM Stany.
Now the kid has broken the record for being the youngest ever to beat a GM in a classical game.
Very proud of Tricky Stany from…

— GM Jacob Aagaard (@GMJacobAagaard) February 18, 2024

Ashwath now works with a handful of strong coaches. One of them is GM Kevin Goh Wei Ming, CEO of the Singapore Chess Federation, who can testify to the youngster's remarkable tactical skills. He reveals that Ashwath is currently a member of their Under-14 squad, coached by GMs Thomas Luther and Andrey Kvon.

"He is tactically very sharp, mainly due to lots of practice and we are trying to build his strategical understanding," Goh says.

He gives an example of this famous study by IM Yochanan Afek, which the eight-year-old solved in under three minutes before bedtime. Can you find how White wins?

Goh added:

"His family is extremely supportive and also does not put excessive pressure on him—letting the boy pursue his own targets. We are proud of Ashwath, but also do not set any targets for him and let him grow at his own pace. Him breaking this world record is simply a bonus."

For Ashwath, the future looks bright. Speaking to a Singaporean newspaper last year, he said he hopes to break 2000 and get his candidate master title, and then eventually reach 2700 "by playing attacking chess," like his idol GM Mikhail Tal.

When asked if he intends to continue playing competitively, he assured: “Yes, till I become the world champion.”

Ashwath is a part of a generation of prodigies that seem to be rewriting the norms of the game with extraordinary results that would be almost unheard of five to 10 years ago. Most kids barely know the chess rules at the age of eight, but now they seem capable of competing with strong titled players.

"8 is the new 12," GM Anish Giri stated on X/Twitter.

8 is the new 12 https://t.co/ek7W7IIKwB

— Anish Giri (@anishgiri) February 18, 2024

In particular, the class of 2015 appears to be a formidable force. In addition to Ivanovic, Chess.com also covered sensational results by WCM Bodhana Sivanandan, who stunned the chess world with triple gold in the World Youth Chess Championships, and Roman Shogdzhiev, who beat five grandmasters in the World Rapid and Blitz Championships.

Who knows, maybe we will soon be seeing 10-year-olds becoming grandmasters!