India’s Nihal Sarin becomes third youngest player to cross 2600 Elo rating barrier
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India chess ace Nihal Sarin became the third youngest player in the history after America’s John Burke and China’s Wei Yi to surpass 2600 Elo rating barrier. With this, Sarin has overcome fellow Indian Parimarjan Negi, who had achieved 2600 Elo at the age of 15 years and 11 months.
The 14-year-old chess prodigy has been playing at the TePe Sigeman & Co chess tournament at the moment and had approached the tournament rated 2598. He earned two points with the help of draws against Grand Masters higher-rated than him.
Prior to Sarin, America’s Burke had crossed the 2600 Elo ratings mark but his achievement hasn’t been taking into consideration by many for he had jumped from 2258 in July 2015 to 2603 in September 2015 with a k-factor of 40.
Apart from Burke China’s Wei Yi has achieved the same at the age of 14 years, 4 months and 30 days. Compared to him, Sarin has done well to reach the landmark at the age of 14 years and 10 months. In the process, Sarin, however, has broken a year old record held by Parimarjan Negi, who had done that at the age of 15 years and 11 months.
In achieving the feat, Sarin has beat some of world’s all-time greats. Wesley So had reached 2600 when he was 15 years old, while Magnus Carlsen could only reach there in 15 years and 2 months. Apart from them, Fabiano Caruana reached the landmark at 15 years and 8 months and Anish Giri at 15 years and 9 months.
