30 Note-worthy Facts About Nihal Sarin You Didn’t Know Before

Nihal Sarin, an Indian chess player who achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 14, is the fourth youngest player in history to cross the Elo rating mark of 2600. He accomplished this feat at the young age of 14. Apart from his performance in tournaments, he is known for his philanthropic activities, as he regularly appears on the streams of popular YouTubers such as Samay Raina, in an effort to raise funds for charitable causes. Here are some really interesting facts about the chess player that will blow your mind:

 
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1.  He won the Gold Medal as part of the Indian team in the 2020 FIDE Chess Olympiad held online. He also won the U-18 World Youth Championship in rapid format.
2.  He also became the youngest Indian to play in the World Cup 2019 at the age of 15, in the year 2019. He managed to reach the second round.
3.  His rating performance of 2626 at the Abu Dhabi Masters 2018, helped him secure his third GM norm, becoming the 53rd grandmaster of India and the twelfth youngest in history at the time.
4.  During the 2019 TePe Sigeman & Co. Masters tournament held in Malmo, Sweden, he finished 6th, with a 2600 Elo mark in rating, becoming the third youngest player in history and the youngest Indian to do so at the time.
5.  On the occasion of Children's Day in 2016, Sarin was chosen as one of the recipients of 'National Child Award For Exceptional Achievement' awarded by the then President of India Mr. Pranab Mukherjee.
6.  Nihal Sarin was born on July 13, 2004 to Sarin Abdulsalam and Shijin Ammanam Veetil Ummar, in Thrissur, Kerala, India. He lived with his family in Kottayam during his first few years.
7.  His father Sarin Abdulsalam is a dermatologist, while his mother Shijin Ammanam Veetil Ummar is a psychiatrist.
8.  He attended Excelsior English School in Kottayam, where he formally learned chess from the school’s chess coach Mathew P. Joseph Pottoore.
9.  Initially, his father introduced him to chess at the age of 6, so that he would not feel bored during school vacations. It was his grandfather A. A. Ummar who first taught him the rules.
10.  However, by this time, he spoke very fluent English, and even knew all the multiplication tables until sixteen.


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11.  In fact, as a three-year old kid, he could recognize the capitals and the flags of 190 countries, and also recite from memory the scientific names of insects and plants.
12.  In the year 2011, Nihal and his family moved to Thrissur where Nihal joined Devamatha CMI Public School.
13.  At the age of 10 years, he played simultaneously against 112 players of all age categories winning all his games, at Thodupuzha, Kerala.
14.  On the day Nihal had become a grandmaster, his home state Kerala was ravaged by the 2018 Kerala floods, the biggest natural disaster in the state's history.
15.  He contributed by raising Rs. 174,463/- (approximately US$2500) via a live YouTube show hosted by Indian chess news portal ChessBase India.
16.  Learning the basics of chess from Mathew P. Joseph Pottoore, he fell in love with the game. Mr. M.B. Muralidharan, Prof. N.R. Anil Kumar, Mr. C.T. Pathrose & K.K. Manikantan helped him get the ropes of the game.
17.  From the year 2013 to 2015, he was trained by E. P. Nirmal, who actually developed him to a rising player. From 2013 to 2019, he was also trained by Dimitri Komarov.
18.  Since 2016, he has been working with Srinath Narayanan, and started working independently on his game. He has been taking training from Viswanathan Anand, since 2020, as a part of the WestBridge-Anand Chess Academy.
19.  He has won the Kerala state championship in Under-07 category in 2011, the Under-09 title twice, the Under-11 title twice and Under-15 (Sub-Junior) title once.
20.  Nihal first won the gold medal in the World Blitz Championship in the Under-10 category in Al-Ain in 2013. The next year, he was the Rapid and Blitz gold medalist in the Asian Youth Championship in the same category.


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21.  His first big break was at the World Youth Chess Championship held in Durban, South Africa in September 2014. He was crowned the Under-10 World Champion for a score of 9/11.
22.  Following this achievement, he was conferred the title of Candidate Master – CM, by FIDE. He also started as the 28th seed among 202 participants from 73 countries, in the Under-12 category of 2015 World Youth Chess Championship, held in Greece.
23.  During the tournament, he successively defeated the top two seeds of his category, and won the silver medal. He crossed the love Elo rating of 2300, and was conferred the FIDE Master title by FIDE.
24.  In February 2016, he played his first International Open — the prestigious Cappelle la Grande Open — and registered his first International Master norm. It was during this tournament that he defeated a grandmaster for the first time in his career.
25.  His winning game against the Lithuanian grandmaster Eduardas Rozentalis, at the Hasselbacken Open 2016, held in Stockholm, was dubbed as the “Game of the Day” by database website Chess-DB.
26.  During the Aeroflot B Open 2017 he scored 5½/9, with an Elo rating of 2539, crossing the 2400-mark and becoming an International Master.
27.  At the World Youth Chess Olympiad in December 2017, Nihal played for India Green, helping the country secure a silver medal. He also won an Individual gold on board three.
28.  He tied for the second place at the TV2 Fagernes International 2017, and stayed undefeated throughout the tournament. It was during this tournament that he scored his maiden Grand Master norm.
29.  He made his debut at the Isbank Turkish Super League in July 2018, leading the team Genc Akademisyenler on the first board.
30.  He won the World Online Youth Championships 2020 in the Under-18 category by defeating GM Shant Sargsyan from Armenia with a final score of 1.5 : 0.5.
31.  Nihal Sarin Net Worth: $1.5 Million