Who is Ashwath Kaushik, the 8-year-old Indian-origin chess player who beat a grandmaster

Ashwath Kaushik, eight years old, who represents Singapore, beat Poland’s chess grandmaster (GM) Jacek Stopa, 37, at the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open in Switzerland. Kaushik became the youngest player to defeat a GM in classical chess .

The previous record was set only a few weeks back when Serbia’s Leonid Ivanovic, who is only several months older than Ashwath, beat 60-year-old Bulgarian grandmaster Milko Popchev at the Belgrade Open.

Who is Ashwath Kaushik?

Kaushik is currently ranked World No. 37,338 as per FIDE Ratings. An Indian citizen, he moved to Singapore in 2017.

Ashwath garnered attention in 2022 after emerging as a triple champion in the chess variations — classic, rapid and blitz — at the U-8 Eastern Asia Youth Championship.

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Also in 2022, he became the World Under-8 Rapid Champion while he was two years shy of the age limit.

As per Chess.com, the 8-year-old spends nearly seven hours on chess and solves puzzles on his old chess program. His father Sriram Kaushik revealed that his son has a photographic memory, saying, “He solves long complex puzzles visually. He finished GM Jacob Aagaard’s entire Grandmaster series recently without using a board.”

After the win over Stopa, Kaushik said, “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”.

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Singaporean young talent Ashwath Kaushik today beat Grandmaster Jacek Stopa in a classical game at the Burgdorfer Stadthaus-Open 2024. He is standing well at 4/4 and will have a challenging rest of the tournament.

At the age of 8 years, 6 months and 11 days, is this a record?…

— Kevin Goh Wei Ming (@kevingohwm) February 18, 2024

Singaporean grandmaster and CEO of the Singapore Chess Federation Kevin Goh lauded Ashwath’s feat, “Dad is super supportive, boy is dedicated, school allows flexibility and of course he has natural talent.”

“Remains to be seen how far he can go as interests can change as the boy gets older. Still, we are hopeful.”

One of the proudest moments of my life :) Ashwath beats a GM (Jacek Stopa) in classic format at 8y, 6m, 11 days around 7 months after drawing GM Ly in classical chess and beating IM Sorenson.@davidllada @chesscom #chess https://t.co/S1rnkWrTLD

— Kaushik (@kaushiksriram) February 18, 2024

Meanwhile Ashwath’s father said in an X post that his son’s win over Stopa was “one of the proudest moments of my life.”