1. Nihal Sarin was born on 13 July 2004 and is an Indian chess grandmaster and chess prodigy.
39 Facts About Nihal Sarin
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Nihal Sarin won the Gold Medal as part of the Indian team in the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020.
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Nihal Sarin won the U-18 World Youth Championship held online in rapid format in 2020.
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Nihal Sarin was born on 13 July 2004 in Thrissur, Kerala, India.
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Nihal Sarin's family spent their first few years in Kottayam.
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Nihal Sarin could recognize the capitals and the flags of 190 countries by the age of three.
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Nihal Sarin won the Kerala State Championship in the Under-07 category in 2011, the Under-09 title twice, the Under-11 title twice and Under-15 title once.
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Nihal Sarin became runner-up in 2015 State Senior championship in Irinjalakuda at the age of 10 years, thus becoming eligible to represent Kerala in the 2015 National Challengers Championship.
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Nihal Sarin was twice the State Under-19 Runner-up at the age of 8 and 10 years, respectively.
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Nihal Sarin was the 2013 National Under-9 Champion in Chennai, the 2014 National Under-11 Bronze medalist in Puri, and the 2015 National Under-11 Silver medalist in Pondicherry.
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Nihal Sarin won the gold medal in the World Blitz Championship in the Under-10 category in Al-Ain in 2013.
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At the age of 10 in Thodupuzha, Nihal Sarin played simultaneously against 112 players of all age categories and won all his games.
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Right after his World Youth success in 2014, Nihal Sarin scored his first victory over a titled player, IM Jonathan Westerberg of Sweden, at the World Junior Championship 2014 in Pune, India.
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Nihal Sarin was conferred the FIDE Master title by the World chess Federation in the same year as he had crossed live Elo rating of 2300.
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Nihal Sarin was a guest competitor in the Malayalam TV quiz show Aswamedham in March 2015.
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In February 2016, Nihal Sarin played his first International Open outside India, the Cappelle-la-Grande Open, and registered his first International Master norm.
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In Hasselbacken Open 2016 held at the turn of April in Stockholm, Nihal Sarin beat Lithuanian grandmaster Eduardas Rozentalis.
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On Children's Day in 2016, Nihal Sarin was chosen as one of the recipients of 'National Child Award For Exceptional Achievement' awarded by the former President of India Pranab Mukherjee.
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At the World Youth Chess Olympiad in December 2017, Nihal Sarin played for India Green, helping the country secure a silver medal.
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Nihal Sarin was fourth on the tiebreak and stayed undefeated throughout the tournament.
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In 2017, Nihal Sarin increased his rating by 192 elo points to cross 2500 in rating.
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Nihal Sarin scored wins against grandmasters Ahmed Adly and Elshan Moradiabadi and drew with Richard Rapport, Gata Kamsky and Mustafa Yilmaz.
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Nihal Sarin made his debut at the Isbank Turkish Super League in July 2018, leading the team Genc Akademisyenler on the first board.
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Nihal Sarin became the 53rd grandmaster of India and the twelfth youngest in history at the time.
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Masters tournament held in Malmo, Sweden, Nihal Sarin finished 6th place to cross the 2600 Elo mark in rating.
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Nihal Sarin was the third youngest player in history and the youngest Indian to do so at the time.
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Nihal Sarin lost the second round and the tiebreakers to crash out of the tournament.
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Since 2019, Nihal Sarin is sponsored by Akshayakalpa, an Indian Organic Milk Company.
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Nihal Sarin was a part of the Indian Chess Team that won the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020.
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Nihal Sarin helped the Indian team win the silver medal at the Asian Teams Online Championship 2020.
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Nihal Sarin was crowned under-18 World Youth Chess Champion on 22 December 2020, and won the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize for his game against IM Francesco Sonis.
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Nihal Sarin won the World Online Youth Championships 2020 in the Under-18 category by defeating GM Shant Sargsyan from Armenia.
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Nihal Sarin was among two of the 19 participants who were able to defeat Carlsen in the event.
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Nihal Sarin had previously beaten Carlsen in an unofficial online Blitz game on 27 May 2020, prompting the world champion to remark that Nihal Sarin was "one of the young guns" and "one of the better blitz players around".
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In October 2021, Nihal Sarin defeated Raunak Sadhwani to win his second Chess.
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Nihal Sarin won the Tata Steel Rapid Championship 2022 with a round to spare.
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Nihal Sarin was trained by Dimitri Komarov from 2013 to 2019.
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Nihal Sarin was trained by Srinath Narayanan from 2016 to 2022.
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Since late 2020, Nihal Sarin is trained by Viswanathan Anand as part of the WestBridge-Anand Chess Academy.