Golden victory for six-year-old chess champion Ashwath Kaushik
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Mumbai: Ashwath Kaushik clinches the gold in the World Cadets and Youth Championships 2022 for Rapid and Blitz held in Rhodes, Greece from May 1-3, 2022. The six-year-old chess player from India made history with his victory in the Open Under-8 category of the championship.
In the first major event on the FIDA calender, IANS reported that the tournament saw the participation of more than 330 players from 40 countries.
En route to victory, Kaushik beat top seeds Modith Aaroh Mutyalapati (ELO 1598) from Canada in Round 3 and Raghav Pathak ( ELO 1355) from the Netherlands.
Starting as the seventh seed, he worked his way up to finish the campaign with 8.5 points out of a possible nine, eventually beating eight out of the top 12 finishers.
Ashwath's coach, FIDE master Balaji Guttula of SMCA, credited his performance to his sharp memory. Ashwath can recall the entire game of 30-plus moves he plays in any tournament, said Balaji.
His mother Rohini said that besides chess, Kaushik likes building intricate lego car models, cycling and watching Formula 1.
He aims to become a Grandmaster by playing attacking chess like his role model Mikhail Tal and will be playing in the Indian school nationals next.