Nihal Sarin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Nihal Sarin |
|
|---|---|
Nihal Sarin playing in the 2023 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship.
|
|
| Country | India |
| Born | 13 July 2004 Thrissur, Kerala, India |
| Title | Grandmaster (2018) |
| FIDE rating | 2620 (July 2025) |
| Peak rating | 2698 (March 2024) |
| Peak ranking | No. 38 (March 2024) |
Nihal Sarin was born on July 13, 2004. He is an amazing chess grandmaster from India. A grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can get!
Nihal is known as a chess prodigy. This means he was super talented at chess from a very young age. In 2018, when he was just 14 years old, his chess rating went over 2600. At that time, he was the third youngest player ever to reach this high rating!
As a young player, Nihal won the World Under-10 championship in 2014. He also came in second place in the 2015 World Under-12 championship. In 2020, he won a gold medal with the Indian team in the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020. He also won the online U-18 World Youth Championship that same year.
Contents
Nihal's Early Life and Chess Journey
Nihal was born in Thrissur, Kerala, India. His dad, Sarin Abdulsalam, is a skin doctor, and his mom, Shijin Ammanam Veetil Ummar, is a mind doctor. He has a younger sister named Neha. His family lived in Kottayam for a few years when he was very young.
Nihal was a very smart kid! By the age of three, he knew the capitals and flags of 190 countries. He also knew the scientific names of many insects and plants. When he was in upper kindergarten, he spoke English very well. By age six, he knew all his multiplication tables up to sixteen!
Nihal started learning chess when he was six years old. His dad wanted him to have something fun to do during school breaks. His grandfather, A. A. Ummar, taught him the rules of chess. Nihal's first coach was Mathew Joseph Pottoore, who taught chess at his school.
In 2011, Nihal and his family moved back to Thrissur. He then joined Devamatha CMI Public School.
Nihal's Junior Chess Career
Nihal won many chess championships in Kerala, his home state. He won the Under-07 title in 2011. He also won the Under-09 title twice, the Under-11 title twice, and the Under-15 title once. When he was 10, he was runner-up in the 2015 State Senior championship. This meant he could play for Kerala in a big national competition.
He was also the National Under-9 Champion in 2013. He won a bronze medal in the National Under-11 in 2014 and a silver medal in 2015.
Nihal won a gold medal in the World Blitz Championship for Under-10 players in 2013. He also won gold medals in Rapid and Blitz at the Asian Youth Championship in 2014.
When he was 10, Nihal played chess against 112 people at the same time in Thodupuzha. He won every single game!
In late 2013, Nihal started working with a coach named Dimitri Komarov. Dimitri is a Grandmaster from Ukraine. He helped Nihal improve his chess skills for several years.
Becoming a World Champion and International Master
Nihal's first big success came in September 2014. He won the World Youth Chess Championship in the Under-10 group in South Africa. He scored 9 out of 11 points and became the Under-10 World Champion! Because of this, he earned the Candidate Master (CM) title.
After winning the World Youth Championship, Nihal started beating stronger players. He won his first game against an International Master (IM) in 2014. For a year, he played in many important tournaments in India. He often drew games against very strong players.
In 2015, he won a silver medal in the Under-12 category of the World Youth Chess Championship in Greece. He beat two of the top players in his group. That same year, he earned the FIDE Master (FM) title. This happened when his live chess rating went over 2300.
Nihal was even a guest on a TV quiz show called Aswamedham in March 2015.
In February 2016, Nihal played in his first big international tournament outside India. He earned his first International Master (IM) norm there. An IM norm is a step towards becoming an International Master. He also beat a grandmaster for the first time in his career!
In another tournament in April 2016, Nihal beat a Lithuanian grandmaster. A chess website called Chess-DB even called this game the "Game of the Day."
On Children's Day in 2016, Nihal received a special award. It was called the 'National Child Award For Exceptional Achievement.' The former President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, gave him this award.
Nihal earned his second IM norm at the Sunway Sitges Open 2016. He got his third IM norm in February 2017. This meant his rating went over 2400, and he officially became an International Master!
Becoming a Grandmaster
In December 2017, Nihal played for the India Green team at the World Youth Chess Olympiad. His team won a silver medal, and he also won an individual gold medal!
At a tournament in Norway in 2017, Nihal tied for second place and stayed undefeated. He also earned his first Grandmaster (GM) norm there. In 2017, Nihal's rating went up by a lot, crossing 2500 points.
In March 2018, Nihal earned his second GM norm at the Reykjavik Open. He won against two grandmasters and drew with three other very strong grandmasters.
Nihal played in the Isbank Turkish Super League in July 2018. He led his team on the first board and played against many strong grandmasters.
In August 2018, Nihal earned his third GM norm at the Abu Dhabi Masters. This made him the 53rd grandmaster from India. He was also the twelfth youngest grandmaster in history at that time!
When Nihal became a grandmaster, his home state of Kerala was going through a big flood. Nihal helped by raising money through a live YouTube show to support the flood victims.
Nihal played in the Tata Steel Rapid Championship 2018. He was the lowest-ranked player, but he drew games against many famous grandmasters. These included Viswanathan Anand, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and Sergey Karjakin. He only lost three games to other top players. This event was Nihal's first game against the amazing five-time world champion, Anand. Anand said that Nihal was a "huge talent" and might even become a world champion one day!
Nihal finished 2018 at the World Blitz Championship in Russia. He played very well, finishing 11th.
In 2019, Nihal played in a tournament in Sweden. He finished 6th and crossed the 2600 Elo rating mark. He was the third youngest player ever and the youngest Indian to do this! In the 2019 Asian Blitz Championship, Nihal came in first place.
In 2019, at just 15 years old, Nihal became the youngest Indian to play in the World Cup. He reached the second round after winning his first match. He then beat another grandmaster before losing in the tiebreakers.
Since 2019, Nihal has been sponsored by Akshayakalpa, an Indian Organic Milk Company.
In January 2020, Nihal played in the Tata Steel Challengers tournament. He finished tied for sixth place. Nihal was also part of the Indian Chess Team that won the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020.
After the Online Chess Olympiad, Nihal kept winning! He won the Junior Speed Chess Championship. A few weeks later, he won the Capechecs Online Trophy. He also helped the Indian team win a silver medal at the Asian Teams Online Championship 2020. In December, Nihal won his third tournament of the year, the Super Juniors Cup. His fourth win in 2020 was the World Youth Chess Championship, where he became the Under-18 World Youth Chess Champion! He also won a special prize for a brilliant game he played.
Nihal won the World Online Youth Championships 2020 in the Under-18 group. He beat GM Shant Sargsyan from Armenia in the final.
Nihal's Achievements in 2021
In April 2021, Nihal joined the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour. He was one of 19 young players chosen to get special training from chess legends like Judit Polgár and Vladimir Kramnik. They also played games against grandmasters. On April 19, 2021, the young players faced the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, in a fast-paced game. Nihal was one of only two players who managed to beat Carlsen! This was Nihal's first official win against the world champion. He had beaten Carlsen in an unofficial online game before, and Carlsen had called him "one of the young guns" and a "better blitz player."
In June 2021, Nihal played in his first over-the-board tournament since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. He won the Silver Lake Open in Serbia, scoring 8 out of 9 points. In July 2021, Nihal won his second tournament in a row, the Serbia Open Masters. In the 2021 Biel Chess Festival, Nihal finished third.
In October 2021, Nihal won his second Chess.com Junior Speed Chess Championship. He also played in the 2021 Speed Chess Championship, beating strong players like Alexander Grischuk and Richard Rapport. He reached the semifinals but lost a very close match to Wesley So.
Nihal's Adult Chess Career
Reaching Peak Ranking (2022–2023)
In August 2022, Nihal played for India-2 in a team event. He scored 7.5 out of 10 points, helping his team. Nihal won the Tata Steel Rapid Championship 2022 with a round to spare! He finished ahead of famous players like Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So.
Nihal played in the first Chess.com Global Championship. He made it to the final 8 players by beating strong opponents, including the 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik and the 17th World Champion Ding Liren. In the knockout rounds, he won against Samuel Sevian and then had a thrilling match against Anish Giri, winning in a tiebreaker. In the final, he lost to Wesley So and finished in second place.
In the 2022 Speed Chess Championship, Nihal beat Anish Giri and Ding Liren to reach the semifinals. He lost to Hikaru Nakamura there. In his match against World No. 2 Ding Liren, Nihal showed great sportsmanship. He resigned quickly in one game after Ding Liren had internet problems in the previous game.
In 2023, Nihal's live rating went over 2700 for the first time! This happened when he won a game at the European Chess Club Cup.
How Nihal Trains
Nihal's first chess coach was Mathew P. Joseph Pottoore, who taught at his school. Nirmal E P, a Kerala State Champion, started training Nihal when he was eight years old.
Nihal was trained by Dimitri Komarov from 2013 to 2019. He also worked with Srinath Narayanan from 2016 to 2022. Since late 2020, Nihal has also been trained by the legendary Viswanathan Anand as part of a special chess academy.
Images for kids
-
Nihal Sarin playing in the 2023 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championship.
-
Nihal at the World Youth Chess Championship in 2014
-
Nihal versus Nils Grandelius in the 2020 Tata Steel Chess Tournament
See also
