3-Year-Old Makes Chess News

A 3-year-old boy has become the youngest chess player to be ranked among other players around the world.

Yes, you read that correctly, 3 years old! More specifically, he is 3 years, 7 months, and 20 days. Last month, Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha was rated 1,572 in rapid chess by the International Chess Federation, known as FIDE. To be rated by FIDE, a player must score at least one point against already-rated players, play a MINIMUM of five games in a rated event, and achieve a rating performance of at least 1,400.

A rating is a score that measures a player’s strengths. It is not the same thing as a ranking. The top-ranked chess player in the world, Magnus Carlsen, has a rating more than twice the minimum, coming in at 2,824. To earn his 1,572 rating, Kushwaha beat opponents many times his age.

Kushwaha is from India, the country where chess originated, and began playing the game when he was about 2 and a half years old.

“We pushed him into chess last year because we noticed his mind was a sponge and he would pick up things very quickly,” said his dad, Siddharth Singh. “In a week of being taught chess, he could name all the pieces accurately.”

Kushwaha spends four to five hours a day playing chess, including one hour at a training center. His family hopes he will train to become a grandmaster. The record for the youngest grandmaster is held by an American who earned the title in 2021 at the age of 12.

While chess originated in India in the sixth century, it evolved into an international game throughout the centuries. Chess was so significant that the second book published in English, “The Game and Playe of Chesse,” was about the game. The first international tournament was held in London in 1851, and the International Chess Federation was established in Paris in 1924, making it one of the oldest sports governing bodies.