3-year-old boy from India becomes world's youngest rated chess player

At the age of 3 years, 7 months and 20 days, a kindergartener from India has become the youngest chess player to earn an official rating from the sport’s international governing body

At the age of 3 years, 7 months and 20 days, a kindergartener from India has become the youngest chess player to earn an official rating from the sport’s international governing body.

Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha, born in 2022, was rated 1572 in rapid chess by FIDE after beating opponents many times his age. The rating is considerably higher than the minimum 1400 required.

To be rated by the International Chess Federation, a player must score points against at least five already rated players at official events.

Sarwagya, who comes from the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, joins a growing list of young Indian players who have come to dominate the sport in recent years — a major shift from the Cold War era when Russians prevailed in the sport.

Sarwagya was about 30 months old when he started playing chess, his father, Siddharth Singh, told The Indian Express, an English-language newspaper in India.