Anish Sarkar: History-making rated chess player from Kolkata stunned coach Barua with his early moves

Anish Sarkar becomes the youngest rated player ever at the age of 3 years 8 months and 19 days (Image X/Shahid Ahmed)

Dibyendu Barua was reluctant to take him in the chess academy he runs in Kolkata. The parents of this boy — aged three years and two months back then — kept insisting. The Grandmaster decided to run a quick test and then relented. The rest is history. Anish Sarkar has become the youngest-ever rated player across the world at the age of three years and eight months.

In chess, a player gets rated by the world federation (FIDE) only by achieving good results against players who are already rated. Sarkar has done the unthinkable by defeating players in two state-level tournaments — one for players under nine and another for those under 13. Too early to say if this is the dawn of an extraordinary talent, but the early signs are staggering.

“We don’t take children below the age of five. One doesn’t develop the faculties before that,” said Barua, India’s second Grandmaster, after Viswanathan Anand. “Because his parents were so insistent, we decided to see what he could do. We gave him certain problems and he solved them in the blink of an eye. His speed and accuracy was above normal.”

Barua has been running this academy since 2005. “As far I can remember, the youngest-ever player we admitted was Mitrava Guha. He was four-plus. It was a similar case. We didn’t want to take him and changed our mind only after he solved the problems given to him,” recalls Barua. Guha is 23 now and has become a Grandmaster, which is a chess player’s passport to the higher level.

In the recent history of Indian chess, there are a number of examples of youngsters making a mark. D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa of Chennai are among them. There are more who took the world by surprise by the display of their precocious talent even before becoming teenagers. But reaching the rating levels well before turning four is unheard of.

Obviously, it’s impossible to say where Sarkar will go. Like youngsters living up to their promise, there are also instances of some of them losing their way. It’s a tricky road, where guidance and exposure play a key role in the development of a player. Early adulation can be detrimental. But for now, this Sarkar boy has made heads turn. How far he goes only time will tell.