New Delhi: In day and age when young kids are seen engaging in video games and glued in front of their television screens, there is an awe-inspiring story of a three-year-old kid’s love for the game of chess. At the age of three years, eight months, and 19 days, Anish Sarkar on Friday became the youngest rated chess player in history.
Born on January 26, 2021 in Kaikhali area of northern Kolkata, Anish made his appearance for West Bengal state Under-9 Open in October. He secured a staggering 5.5 put of 8 points to finish 24th after outsmarting two rated players in Arav Chatterjee and Ahilaan Baishya.
Anish has got the oppotunity to compete with Indian Grand Master Arjun Erigaisi during a exhibition match held at the Bengal Rapid Rating Open. A week later, Anish faced other experienced players at the West Bengal state U-13 Open. This event helped him to earn FIDE rating of 1555 (updated on Thursday) after he faced a total of five rated players.
According to Chess.com, a chess rating is a tool that makes it easy to measure a player’s probable performance against another opponent. Once a player has played at least five games against players with established FIDE ratings in a period of 26 months, and have scored at least 1/2 a point in those games then the player is considered as a rated chess player.
Anish broke the record set, Tejas Tiwari to become the youngest FIDE rated player at the age of 5. The information was confirmed by Dibyendu Barua, who is also the prodigious player’s coach and also India’s second GM after Viswanathan Anand.
“He reminds me of Mitrabha Guha (who became GM at 20 years). Anish definitely has potential but he has a long, long way to go,” Barua told news agency PTI.
Anish the next big thing in Chess?
Anish’s rise as a prodigious chess player is a positive sign for an already burgeoning Indian chess ecosystem. He could emulate the path of other youngsters such as Erigaisi, D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa. All three players were part of India’s recent gold medal victory at the Chess Olympiad, where even women clinched the gold.
According to a report by PTI, Anish, in most of his videos at chess tournaments, is seen sitting on a stack of chairs just to reach the chessboard, making it an endearing sight. He has played against the likes of Barua and Surya Sekhar Ganguly.
“We’ve put him in a special group, where he trains for seven to eight hours,” said Barua.
“Sometimes, he even comes to my home to play, and once he sits down at the board, he simply won’t get up. His focus is truly astounding.” Born into a lower-middle-class family with parents who had “zero knowledge of chess,” Anish’s journey began just a year ago when he was a toddler.
His mother revealed how Anish was encouraged to take interest in chess. The mother doesn’t want the spotlight because of their personal beliefs.
“We introduced him to different YouTube channels, including cartoons like Peppa Pig, but he was drawn to chess videos,” his mother said.
“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,” she recalls.
Anish is an avid follower of ‘GothamChess’ on YouTube, and aspires Norwegian great Magnus Carlsen as his hero. He will get his opportunity to meet Carlsen as Barua has decided to put him in the field of the upcoming Tata Steel Kolkata Chess.
(With inputs from PTI)
