It is a great honour
All of 17, Nihal Sarin had a great 2021, winning the Silver Lake Open in Serbia, the Serbian Open, and the Biel GMT Blitz in Switzerland.
Nihal Sarin was named BYJU’S ‘Young Athlete of the Year (Male)’ at the Sportstar Aces Awards 2022 in Mumbai.
All of 17, Nihal had a great 2021, winning the Silver Lake Open in Serbia, the Serbian Open, and the Biel GMT Blitz in Switzerland.
“I would like to thank Sportstar and BYJU’S for nominating me. It is a great honour. Thanks Viswanathan Anand Sir for his great support.
I would like to thank my family for their huge support, without which this would not be possible,” Sarin said after receiving the award from Anand.
At home, Nihal retained the junior speed chess championship title before being a part of the Indian team, which took bronze in the online Chess Olympiad.
In 2019, at 14 years and 10 months, Sarin crossed 2600 Elo ratings, becoming the youngest-ever Indian and third-youngest in history to do so. Sarin broke the Indian record held by Parimarjan Negi, who reached 2600 Elo at 15 years and 11 months, by a year.
In August 201■, Sarin turned Grandmaster after winning his third norm at the Abu Dhabi Masters with 5.5 points from nine matches with a round to spare.
“About a year and a half ago, I started a chess academy, picking promising youngsters to support and mentor them. Nihal is one of my students. He is a speed specialist. He plays the fastest time controls in chess,” Anand said about Sarin. “I was famous for five-minute games.
“I could impress people. I will not impress him though. He plays one-minute games. He has achieved a lot of rating milestones in the last year. Very near the 2650 mark. I hope he will have a brilliant future, and I will be able to help him as much as I can,” Anand said.