Viswanathan Anand praises Sarin
AMN / WEB DESK
Young Indian Chess player Nihal Sarin emerged winner in the Chess.com’s 2020 Junior Speed Online Championship in Chennai, beating Russia’s world junior No. 6 Alexey Sarana 18-7 in the final.
The title win earned the 16-year old Sarin 8,766 US Dollars and enabled him to qualify for the 2020 Speed Chess Championship Final which will feature the world’s best players.
Sarin had beaten American Andrew Tang, Australia’s Anton Smirnov and Armenian Haik Martirosyan en route the title. Sarin, a former world Under-10 champion, will join the Indian men’s team that is taking part in the Asian Online Nations (Regions) Cup Team Championship which began yesterday.
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand praised Sarin, saying, “Nihal is one of the world’s fastest juniors, and this result confirms it.”
Introduced to chess by his grandfather when he was seven to rein in his restless, boyish energy, Nihal went on to win the Asian U-10 rapid and blitz titles. He also took home the World U-10 blitz title and was crowned U-10 Classical World champion in September 2014. He turned International Master at 12 years and 8 months, the same age at which Carlsen also achieved the feat, becoming the third-youngest in the world then to do so.