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Age might not be a huge factor when it comes to board games that task players with facing off in a mental battle as opposed to a physical one, but it can play a role when you consider it tends to go hand in hand with experience. However, some chess players were not able to benefit from their veteran status while losing to a three-year-old who has become the youngest player to ever receive an international rating.
The basic principles of chess are pretty easy to comprehend, but it’s an incredibly complex game that some people spend an entire lifetime attempting to master.
You might be able to gain an edge on younger opponents if you’ve been able to spend decades studying strategy, but some of the best chess players in history were child prodigies who started schooling others from an impressively young age.
Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian who has been the top-rated player in the world since 2011 and achieved the highest FIDE rating in chess history when he peaked at 2882 in 2014, was still in elementary school when he emerged as a rising sensation, and the legendary Bobby Fischer was just 15 years old when he earned grandmaster status in 1958.
There’s no telling what the future holds for a three-year-old who recently became the youngest player to ever receive an FIDE rating, but it would appear he also has a pretty bright future ahead of him.
A three-year-old in India became the youngest rated player in chess history after dispatching some opponents in their 20s
The Fédération Internationale des Échecs (known as the “International Chess Federation” in English) serves as the governing body for the sport. It is also the authority when it comes to evaluating players, as the FIDE ratings (adapted from the system dreamt up by Arpad Elo) have served as the gold standard since they were rolled out in 1970.
I won’t get too into the weeds when it comes to discussing how those ratings are calculated, but as of 2024, a player is only recognized by FIDE if they have a minimum score of 1,4000 after playing at least five games against ranked opponents.
According to Chess.com, India’s Anish Sarkar became the youngest player to ever earn a FIDE rating when he debuted at 1556 at the age of three years, eight months, and 19 days last November. However, there’s now a new mark to beat courtesy of another player hailing from the same country.
The title is now held by Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha, who only started playing chess around a year ago and recently received an FIDE rating of 1572 at the age of three years, seven months, and 20 days.
He earned it after winning five of the eight matches he played in sanctioned events, which included two wins over 22-year-old opponent Abhijeet Awasthi (who had a rating of 1542), a victory over 20-year-old Yogesh Namdev (1696), and another at the expense of 29-year-old Shubham Chourasiy (1559).
Kushwaha’s dad said he introduced his son to chess in an attempt to cut down on his screen time, and he now plays around between four and five hours each day while balancing his training with nursery school.
What a world.