India's Nihal Sarin wins Junior Speed Chess Championship

Chennai, October 10

Young Indian player Nihal Sarin emerged winner in the Chess.com’s 2020 Junior Speed Online Chess Championship, beating Russia’s world junior No. 6 Alexey Sarana 18-7 in the final.

The title win earned the 16-year-old Sarin $8,766 and enabled him to qualify for the 2020 Speed Chess Championship Final which will feature the world’s best players.

Sarin had beaten American Andrew Tang, Australia’s Anton Smirnov and Armenian Haik Martirosyan en route the title.

Past winners of the Speed Chess Championship include Magnus Carlsen (2017) and Hikaru Nakamura (2018, 2019).

The Indian teenager had lost 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, a former world Under-10 champion, will join the Indian men’s team that is taking part in the Asian Online Nations (Regions) Cup Team Championship which began Saturday. — PTI