An eight-year-old chess prodigy from Singapore has become the youngest chess player to beat a grandmaster.

After a three-hour game of chess at Switzerland’s Burgdorfer Stadthaus-Open, Ashwath Kaushik – who is eight and six months – beat the 37-year-old Polish grandmaster Jacek Stopa on Sunday, according to the Singapore Star. 

According to Chess.com, the competitive chess world “has recently been witnessing a surge in children scoring extraordinary results at an even earlier age, perhaps propelled by the pandemic and a rating system lagging behind in keeping pace with their rise in strength”. 

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The move is yours.

Melding traditional techniques with an appreciation for beeswax as a sculptural material, FAUM released an elegant chess set to serve as a new addition to cozy, candle-lit game nights. 

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Clever Chess Set Is Already Set Up and Ready to Play When You Open the Box

Before newcomers can even begin to start learning how the various chess pieces move around the board, they have to know what squares the pawns, bishops, rooks, knights, kings, and queens all call home. At the very least, arranging the pieces can be time-consuming and a little annoying.
 But Preset Chess takes care of all of that for you.

 

Chess Is “a Mere Amusement of a Very Inferior Character”

Chess is an old game, dating back at least 1,400 years. It was hugely popular in Europe throughout the medieval ages. In America, writes the U.S. Chess Federation, Benjamin Franklin was a fan. In the mid-19th century, after American Paul Morphy beat Europe's greatest chess players, chess's popularity in the U.S. surged. Morphy's win was greeted with a reaction that a chess player today could only dream of. According to the July 2, 1859 edition of Scientific American:

The achievements of our young countryman, Paul Morphy, in vanquishing the most distinguished chess-players of Europe, have excited in our people a very pardonable degree of national pride; hence they have exhibited a strong exultant feeling in welcoming him back to his native land as the Chess Champion of the World. He has been received with high demonstrations in several cities, and public testimonials of great value have been presented to him; while at the same time poets have sung, and sages have delivered orations in his praise.

Yet far from cheering on this public fascination with chess, the writers of Scientific American seem downright dismayed. The article becomes a glorious piece of concern trolling, the sort of screed that today would be reserved for the latest shoot em' up video game, young adult novel franchise or fabricated teen trend.

[A] pernicious excitement to learn and play chess has spread all over the country, and numerous clubs for practicing this game have been formed in cities and villages. Why should we regret this? it may be asked. We answer, chess is a mere amusement of a very inferior character, which robs the mind of valuable time that might be devoted to nobler acquirements, while at the same time it affords no benefit whatever to the body.

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