At an age when most kids are learning ’A for Apple’ and ‘B for Balloon’, nursery kid Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha has learnt ‘Q for Queen’, ‘K for King’, and ‘C for Checkmate’, and has become the world’s youngest FIDE-rated chess player in history.
Sarwagya, from Sagar district in Madhya Pradesh, has achieved the remarkable feat at the age of just 3 years, 7 months and 20 days.
In doing so, he has broken last year’s world record achieved by Kolkata’s Anish Sarkaar, who had become the world’s youngest FIDE-rated player at the age of 3 years, 8 months and 19 days in November 2024.
Sarwagya has achieved a FIDE rapid rating of 1572. Anish had a rating of 1555. The minimum score necessary to obtain a ranking is 1400.
Information available on the web indicates that a player must either draw or win against at least five FIDE-rated players in FIDE recognised matches to achieve a FIDE ranking.
Sarwagya won five of his first eight recognised matches against rated competitors, some of whom were almost 10 times his age.
Sarwagya beat 29-year-old Shubham Chaurasia, who has a rating of 1559. He then defeated Abhijeet Awasthi (22), who has a 1542 rating.
Sarwagya then beat 1696-rated Yogesh Namdev (20), and again beat Abhijeet Awasthi, in different tournaments this month.