A three-year-old in India has become the youngest player in chess history to earn an official rating from the International Chess Federation (Fide).
Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha, who hails from the Sagar district in Madhya Pradesh, was just three years, seven months and 20 days old when he earned his Fide rating – breaking the previous record set by Anish Sarkar from Kolkata last November by about a month.
To achieve a ranking a player needs to play against five rated players in Fide-approved tournaments and secure at least one draw or victory, which Kushwaha did on three occasions in events across Madhya Pradesh and other parts of India.
Congratulations to Sarvagya Singh Kushwaha 🇮🇳 for becoming the World's Youngest Fide Rapid Rated Player!
— Rakesh Kulkarni (@itherocky) December 1, 2025
Sarvagya was born in 2022 😳
He creates history by becoming a FIDE rated player at “3 years, 7 months and 20 days”😍
Incredible! 🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/VqS49Au3uK
Despite currently being enrolled in nursery, the toddler’s rapid rating is 1,572 – a mark better than many adult players. For context, the base rating is 1,400 (if your rating falls below that then you are considered un-rated) and legendary world No 1 Magnus Carlsen – who first played the sport when he was five years old – currently tops rapid chess with a huge rating of 2,824.
“It's a matter of great pride and honour for us that our son has become the youngest chess player in the world to achieve a FIDE ranking,” Kushwaha's father Siddharth Singh told Indian news channel ETV Bharat. “We want him to become a grandmaster.”
Kushwaha, who was born in 2022, first picked up chess last year at the age of two and a half and has to either stand up on his chair, or sit on three chairs stacked on top of each other, to reach the other side of the board.
He practises for four or five hours each day, one of which is spent at a chess training centre and the rest spent playing online games and learning tactics via videos.
“We pushed him into chess last year because we noticed his mind was a sponge and he would pick up things very quickly,” his father Siddharth told The Indian Express. “In a week of being taught chess, he could name all the pieces accurately.
“He loves the sport a lot. If you wake him up in the middle of the night and ask him to play, he will for hours without a break. But what separates him from other kids his age is his patience to sit on the board and not get restless.”
Kushwaha also has a chess coach, Nitin Chaurasiya, and after initially crying if his coach was too strict, Chaurasiya found a different way to motivate his young charge – he would give him a toffee or a pack of crisps each time he played the right move.
“When his parents first approached me to train him last year, he looked like a very normal kid,” said Chaurasiya. “But soon, his capability to play the game well started to shine.
“You ask him anything and there’s no hesitation in answering. He can also hold his own on the board against older kids. You can see his guts when he plays.
“We’ll start looking for other coaches soon who can train him for the goal of becoming a grandmaster. Maybe get him some online coaching too.”
India is becoming something of a chess hotbed, being home to the current world champion Gukesh Dommaraju and five-time World Cup winner Viswanathan Anand.
