Nihal Sarin

Nihal Sarin
Born	July 13, 2004 Thrissur  India
FIDE rating	2351
Peak rating	2351

Nihal Sarin

Nihal Sarin (Malayalam: നിഹാല്‍ സരിന്‍) is a chess player and a child prodigy from Thrissur, Kerala, India.^[1] He was the World champion of World Youth Chess Championship Under-10 boys title in 2014 (Durban, South Africa). He has also won the World under 12 open silver medal in 2015. (Halkidiki, Greece)^[2]

Achievements

Nihal won the Under-10 blitz title at the World Youth Chess Championship in Al Ain on December 29, 2013. In June 2014, Nihal won the Asian Under-10 Blitz & Rapid Championship (Tashkent, Uzbekistan). Next was the World Under-10 (Classic) Open title at the World Youth Chess Championship which was held in Durban, South Africa in September 2014. He got nine points from 11 rounds in WYCC 2014 to win the title. For this achievement, he was conferred the Candidate Master (CM) title by FIDE. The very next year in 2015, he won the silver medal in the Under-12 category (WYCC, Greece) starting as the 28th seed among 202 participants from 73 countries. He was conferred the FIDE Master title by the World chess Federation (FIDE) in the same year as he had crossed live ELO rating of 2300. He was the National Under-9 Champion, 2013 (Chennai), National Under-11 Silver medalist,2015(Pondicherry), National Under-11 Bronze medalist, 2014 (Puri, Odisha) and six-time Kerala state champion in Under-07, Under-09 (twice), Under-11 (twice) and Under-15 (Sub-Junior) categories. He became runner up in State Senior championship in 2015, Irinjalakuda at the age of 10 years, thus becoming eligible to represent Kerala in the National Challengers Championship 2015. He was twice the State Under-19 (Juniors) Runner-up at the age of 8 & 10 years respectively. At the age of 10 years on June 12, 2015, at Thodupuzha, Kerala, Nihal played simultaneously against 112 players of all age categories winning all his matches^[11]. Nihal has beaten a French GM & has drawn 3 GMs including a 2635 FIDE rated Russian Grand Master, has won against three International Masters (IM) and five senior state champions in his career so far. In 2016, at the age of 11 years, he became one of the youngest from India to achieve an IM norm at Cappelle la Grande, France. According to the latest (March 2016) FIDE rating list, Nihal is No.1 in India & No. 4 in the World in his age category^[12]. Former World champion Alexander Alekhine is his favourite chess player.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Family

Nihal is the elder son of Dr Sarin, a skin specialist and Dr Shijin, a Psychiatrist. Both of them work as Assistant Professors at Govt. Medical college, Thrissur, Kerala. He has a younger sister Neha Sarin. Nihal is a student of Devamatha CMI Public School, Thrissur city.^[9]

References

1. "Nihal; the prodigious Chess master". Mathrubhumi News. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
2. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/world-youth-chess-tourney/article7853642.ece
3. "Nihal and Divya triumph". The Hindu. Retrieved 2014-09-30.
4. "Grandmaster Sahaj Grover ties for first in Durban Open". The Hindu. Retrieved 2014-09-30.
5. "Little Nihal showing big promise". The Hindu. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
6. "Under-7 chess: top seed Bethi beaten". Indian Express.com. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
7. "FIDE Chess Profile". FIDE. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
8. "Little Nihal showing big promise". The Hindu. Retrieved 2014-09-29.
9. "Nihal is World Champion". Mathrubhumi.com. Retrieved 2014-09-30.

 11. www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/Under-10-World-Chess-Champ-Nihal-Routs-112-Opponents/2015/06/13/article2863573.ece
        
 12. http://chess-db.com/public/pinfo.jsp?id=25092340