Ashwath Kaushik, 8, wants to be youngest chess grandmaster in Singapore

SINGAPORE – Having become the youngest player to beat a grandmaster recently, eight-year-old Ashwath Kaushik has set his sights on attaining chess’ highest rank soon.

The Grade 4 pupil at Overseas Family School in Pasir Ris is currently a candidate grandmaster, two titles below grandmaster.

When asked whether he wants to be the youngest grandmaster in Singapore, he replied: “Not Singapore alone, but maybe among the youngest in the world.”

Ashwath, who made headlines by beating Polish grandmaster Jacek Stopa, 37, at the Burgdorfer Stadthaus-Open in Switzerland on Feb 18, was speaking to The Straits Times at the Father’s Day Chess Event organised by Singapore Chess Infinity on June 16.

He and his father Kaushik Sriram were invited to speak at the event at The Centrepoint in Orchard.

Singapore’s youngest grandmaster is Siddharth Jagadeesh, 17, while the youngest to have earned the title globally is American Abhimanyu Mishra, who achieved the feat in 2021 when he was 12.

Ashwath, an Indian citizen who moved to Singapore with his family seven years ago, represents the Republic internationally. The family has applied to be permanent residents.

Meanwhile, he will continue working towards his goal as he competes in International Chess Federation (Fide) events.

Next up for him will be the Fide World Cup in Batumi, Georgia, from June 22 to July 3 and the Warsaw Chess Festival in Poland from July 9 to 17.

Ashwath was introduced to chess when he was just four years and three months old. When he beat his grandparents just five months later, his parents enrolled him in classes so that he could learn more aspects like tactics and opening moves. At six, he entered Fide tournaments.

His dad, Kaushik Sriram, 38, said: “Instead of the normal stuff kids do, like watch videos and so on, we figured because he’s always had a good memory, and he used to do fairly complicated jigsaw puzzles and Lego early on, it might be helpful to get him into chess.”

Ashwath had started solving jigsaw puzzles when he was just about 2½ years old. Not long after, 100-piece puzzles and complex Lego sets were no longer a challenge.

He recalled his early coaching classes, where he remembers “making some illegal moves”. He has made great strides since.

To prepare for his matches, Ashwath uses “blindfold puzzles”, where he is unable to see the chess board, but is instead told where the pieces are by someone else.

“One thing is that because he grew up online, he doesn’t use the chessboard at all,” added Sriram, who is a management consultant. “All his games and coaching are online most of the time.

“This is a bit counter to what people usually do, because coaches in the physical world will say set it up and make the moves and so on.”

Ashwath Kaushik and his father Kaushik at Singapore Chess Infinity’s Father’s Day Chess Event on June 16. ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY

Ashwath also studies his opponents before a match by looking at their moves at previous tournaments.

With Singapore having submitted a bid to host the year-end World Chess Championship, he is looking forward to the possibility of watching India’s Gukesh Dommaraju take on defending champion Ding Liren of China.

“I’m really excited. I’m just going to take two weeks off school and go watch the world championship,” said Ashwath, whose younger brother Atharv, five, also plays chess.

While Ashwath is aiming to be a grandmaster, Sriram just hopes that his son enjoys the game.

“It takes obviously a lot of effort to go in and play professionally and so on. So maybe at 14 or 15 we’ll see where he reaches and then think,” he said, adding that he has never expected his son to reach this level.