SINGAPORE: For most chess players, beating a grandmaster would rank near the top of their sporting achievements.
Ashwath Kaushik, aged eight, did just that on Sunday (Feb 18), clinching victory over Polish grandmaster Jacek Stopa at the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open in Switzerland.
At 37, Stopa is nearly five times older than Ashwath, but the boy, who represents Singapore, was unfazed en route to becoming the youngest player to defeat a grandmaster in classical chess.
A grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can achieve.
The previous record was only set several weeks earlier when Serbia’s Leonid Ivanovic, who is several months older than Ashwath, beat 60-year-old Bulgarian grandmaster Milko Popchev at the Belgrade Open.
Currently ranked world No. 37338 on FIDE, the international chess federation, Ashwath told Chess.com his win over Stopa “felt really exciting and amazing”.
“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,” he added.