Indian teenager Nihal Sarin wins Junior Speed Chess Championship

Indian teenager created history on Saturday (October 10) by winning the Chess.com’s 2020 Junior Speed Online Chess Championship, defeating Russia’s Alexey Sarana 18-7 in the final.

With this win, Sarin, 16, earned USD 8,766 and also qualified for the 2020 Speed Chess Championship Final which will feature the world’s best players.

Sarin had registered win over American Andrew Tang, Australia’s Anton Smirnov and Armenian Haik Martirosyan in order to set-up a title clash with Sarana.

Magnus Carlsen (2017) and Hikaru Nakamura (2018, 2019) have won the Speed Chess Championship in the past.

It is to be noted that Nihal Sarin had faced defeated in the first round of the 2019 Junior Speed Chess event.

According to a press release, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand praised Sarin, saying, “Nihal is one of the world’s fastest juniors, and this result confirms it.”

Sarin is set to be a part of the Indian men’s team which will participate in the Asian Online Nations (Regions) Cup Team Championship which began Saturday.