Chess prodigy Nihal Sarin from Thrissur has created one more record by becoming an International Master (IM) at the tender age of 12 years and eight months.
The fourth International Master from the State, Nihal is the second youngest International Master from India, and the third youngest in the world. Nihal is a seventh standard student of Devamatha CMI Public School, Thrissur.
To become an International Master, a player is supposed to earn three IM norms in different tournaments. The International Master title is one level below the Grandmaster title.
For Nihal, the process of becoming an International Master began when he played his first Grandmasters (GM) tournament outside India, in Cappelle la Grande Open 2016, in France. Nihal earned his first International Master norm by beating a grandmaster and also drawing with several other grandmasters.
After a long struggle in numerous international tournaments, he scored his second International norm at the Sunway Sitges Open in Spain.
In the Aeroflot Open B 2017 from February 21 to March 1, Nihal scored his final International Master norm, which included wins over two grandmasters.
In the past one year, Nihal defeated several GMs and IMs.
He is also the only world champion from Kerala, winning the World Under-10 title in Durban, South Africa, in 2014.
He was a silver medallist in the Under-12 World Championship in Greece in 2015 and in the 2016 World Championship in Under-12 category, he again tied for the second spot, but this time was fourth on the tiebreak.
In his formative years, Nihal was coached by Mathew P. Joseph Pottoore of Kottayam. Since 2012, E.P. Nirmal of Thrissur has been coaching him on a regular basis. From 2014, Nihal also began to train under GM Dmitri Komarov from Ukraine.
Nihal will be competing in the Sharjah Masters 2017 in March and has been invited to compete at the Fagernes Open 2017 in Norway and Reykjavik Open in Iceland, both in April.
National award
Nihal was chosen for the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement 2016 , for which he was felicitated by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
