Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha began playing chess when he was two and a half
When Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha arrived for his first four-hour chess coaching session, he cried. It was understandable, he was only three years old.
After one month, however, he began to flourish. Now, about seven months later, Sarwagya has become the youngest player in history to earn an official rating from the International Chess Federation (Fide), the world governing body.
“Initially, when he used to come to my house for coaching, he would cry,” Nitin Chourasia, his coach, told The Times. “ ‘I want to go to Mama and Papa.’ But after one month, he settled down and now he is not interested in anything but chess, not cartoons, not the mobile, not television.”
Sarwagya began playing chess at his home in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, when he was two and a half years old. Chaurasia started coaching him in April, six days a week, four hours a day.
The extensive training helped Sarwagya to defeat three rated players and achieve a 1,572 rating from Fide. He beat a record set by Anish Sarkar, from Calcutta, who achieved the same feat in November last year when he was three years, eight months and 19 days — one month older than Sarwagya is now.
Sarwagya with his parents
Sarwagya’s father, Siddharth Singh Kushwaha, said his son was too young to comprehend his achievement but was delighted with the gifts his family and relatives showered him with after his win.
Kushwaha, a 32-year-old farmer who grows wheat, rice and soyabeans, is an amateur chess player himself and noticed his son’s talent early on. The family was inspired by Gukesh Dommaraju, who at 19, is the youngest undisputed chess world champion in history and hails from Chennai.
“[Sarwagya] heard us talking about Gukesh and began watching chess videos. He picked up the rules in no time,” Kushwaha said.
Aren’t such comparisons a lot of pressure for a three-year-old? “Not at all,” Kushawa said. “On the contrary, he loves playing chess at any time. He never gets bored with it.”
Many famous chess prodigies start playing very young. The former world champion Magnus Carlsen was five when he began playing, and the five-time Indian World Cup winner Anand Viswanathan was positively geriatric when he began playing aged six.
Bharat Singh Chauhan, deputy president of the Asian Chess Federation, said: “I’m pleasantly surprised at these child prodigies. I think it helps that they have plenty of opportunities to play — with parents, grandparents and siblings.”
India, where chess originated in the 6th century, is in the throes of an intense revival of interest in the game, with corresponding achievements.
Last April, Dommaraju became the youngest winner of the prestigious Fide Candidates tournament, smashing a record that had been unbroken for 40 years after it was set by the Russian grandmaster and former world champion Garry Kasparov.
Other young Indian talents include Arjun Erigaisi, 22, and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 20.
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No TV, now he’s India’s latest chess prodigy at three years old
Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha is the youngest player to earn an official rating from Fide and his parents say he is on course to become a grandmaster
new
Amrit Dhillon
, Delhi
Thursday December 04 2025, 4.30pm GMT, The Times
Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha began playing chess when he was two and a half
When Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha arrived for his first four-hour chess coaching session, he cried. It was understandable, he was only three years old.
After one month, however, he began to flourish. Now, about seven months later, Sarwagya has become the youngest player in history to earn an official rating from the International Chess Federation (Fide), the world governing body.
“Initially, when he used to come to my house for coaching, he would cry,” Nitin Chourasia, his coach, told The Times. “ ‘I want to go to Mama and Papa.’ But after one month, he settled down and now he is not interested in anything but chess, not cartoons, not the mobile, not television.”
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Sarwagya began playing chess at his home in Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, when he was two and a half years old. Chaurasia started coaching him in April, six days a week, four hours a day.
The extensive training helped Sarwagya to defeat three rated players and achieve a 1,572 rating from Fide. He beat a record set by Anish Sarkar, from Calcutta, who achieved the same feat in November last year when he was three years, eight months and 19 days — one month older than Sarwagya is now.
Sarwagya with his parents
Sarwagya’s father, Siddharth Singh Kushwaha, said his son was too young to comprehend his achievement but was delighted with the gifts his family and relatives showered him with after his win.
Kushwaha, a 32-year-old farmer who grows wheat, rice and soyabeans, is an amateur chess player himself and noticed his son’s talent early on. The family was inspired by Gukesh Dommaraju, who at 19, is the youngest undisputed chess world champion in history and hails from Chennai.
• Has chess taken cheating to a whole new level?
“[Sarwagya] heard us talking about Gukesh and began watching chess videos. He picked up the rules in no time,” Kushwaha said.
Aren’t such comparisons a lot of pressure for a three-year-old? “Not at all,” Kushawa said. “On the contrary, he loves playing chess at any time. He never gets bored with it.”
Many famous chess prodigies start playing very young. The former world champion Magnus Carlsen was five when he began playing, and the five-time Indian World Cup winner Anand Viswanathan was positively geriatric when he began playing aged six.
• Magnus Carlsen: what the world’s greatest chess player did next
Bharat Singh Chauhan, deputy president of the Asian Chess Federation, said: “I’m pleasantly surprised at these child prodigies. I think it helps that they have plenty of opportunities to play — with parents, grandparents and siblings.”
India, where chess originated in the 6th century, is in the throes of an intense revival of interest in the game, with corresponding achievements.
Last April, Dommaraju became the youngest winner of the prestigious Fide Candidates tournament, smashing a record that had been unbroken for 40 years after it was set by the Russian grandmaster and former world champion Garry Kasparov.
Other young Indian talents include Arjun Erigaisi, 22, and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 20.
• Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann resolve dispute over chess cheating claims
Kushwaha is over the moon about the prospect of his “brilliant boy” joining such illustrious ranks.
“I am so proud as a parent and so lucky,” he said. “We want him to become a grandmaster.”