Chennai: Chess prodigy
Nihal Sarin
is on a roll. The young gun pocketed his second
Grand Master
(GM) norm with two rounds remaining at the ongoing
Reykjavik Open
chess tournament on Monday. Nihal, who won his maiden norm at the open Norwegian championship in Norway last year, has been in good form at the competition. Having surpassed the live
ELO
rating of 2550, Nihal is surely going places. At the Reyjavik Open, Nihal is currently on 5.5 points out of 7 rounds and is placed sixth. Richard Rapport and B Adhiban were leading the charge with 6 points apiece.
The 13-year-old caught the attention of many in 2013 when he won gold at the World Youth Blitz chess championship in UAE in the under-10 category. Subsequently, Nihal was in full flow as he won gold at the
World Youth chess championship
(U-10 category) in South African in 2014. The same year saw young Nihal win the U-10 category gold in Asian Youth rapid and Asian Youth Blitz championships at Tashkent (Uzbekistan).
In 2016, Nihal achieved his maiden IM (International Master) norm at the Capelle la Grande Open. Later that year, Nihal had a second IM norm in his kitty at the Sunway Sitges Open in Spain, before getting his third IM norm last February in Aeroflot B Open.
In the next two months, Nihal had quickly moved to bag his maiden GM norm.
Nihal, who hails from Kerala, comes from a family of medical practitioners. Nihal’s father Sarin Abdulsalam is a dermatologist currently with the Thrissur Medical College while his mother Shijin is a psychiatrist.
Start a Conversation
Post comment