Eight-year-old Ashwath of Indian origin made a record, became the youngest player to defeat a Grandmaster

India-born Ashwath Kaushik is only eight years old, but even at that age he took chess lessons from a Grand Master (GM). The Singaporean player caught the world's attention by defeating Polish Grandmaster Jacek Stopa in the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open chess tournament. Ashwath became the youngest player to defeat a GM in classical chess. Stopa is 37 years old and 29 years older than Ashwath.

The previous record was set just a few weeks ago, when Serbia's Leonid Ivanovic defeated 60-year-old Bulgarian GM Milko Popashev at the Belgrade Open. Ivanovic is several months older than Ashwath. Ashwath's current FIDE ranking is 37,338. He is an Indian citizen and came to Singapore from India in 2017.

Ashwath said that he is proud of his way of playing. Especially at one time he was in a very bad situation and he came back from there. Singapore Chess Federation CEO and Grandmaster Kevin Goh is excited by Ashwath's success. He wrote on social media that father is very helpful, son is dedicated, school also helps a lot, of course he is naturally talented.

Goh hopes Ashwath's success will inspire many more children to take up chess. Ashwath first came into limelight when he became the East Asia Youth Champion in Under-8 in 2022 in all three categories of Classic, Rapid and Blitz. Ashwath's father Shriram Kaushik wrote on social media that his son's victory over the stupa is the proudest moment of his life. According to Goh, Ashwath's next goal is to improve his rating and win the Candidate Masters title.