“Amazing things” “Anish is fantastic” “We have to protect him” The words are taken from the comment field under several of the videos of 3-year-old Anish Sarkar that are out on YouTube. And there are starting to be a lot of them. Earlier this month, he set a colossal record: He became the world’s youngest player with a chess rating. While the world’s best chess player Magnus Carlsen (33) currently has a rating of 2831, the figure was 1555 for Anish Sarkar, 30 years younger. – It is of course enormously high for a three-year-old, says chess expert Atle Grønn. He is still not over-enthusiastic and he has made up his mind a lot about what can be interpreted from such achievements. – You must also have the qualities to be willing to train hard. We don’t know if a three-year-old will want that. 3 YEARS: At just three years old, Anish Sarkar became the youngest ever to receive a rating from FIDE. Photo: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR / AFP Chess trumps Peppa Pig Anish Sarkar was born in January 2021 and is from Kolkata in the far east of India. In many ways a chess nation of dimensions. Three-year-old Sarkar was quickly hooked on chess when he received a chessboard as a gift from his uncle. Now he participated for hours in the chess school of grandmaster Dibyendu Barua, who has called the three-year-old’s ability to concentrate “amazing”, according to Aftenposten. To the newspaper Times of India, Sarkar’s mother said that they introduced the zone to various YouTube videos in January 2024, including videos of Peppa Pig, but that it was chess videos that he wanted to watch. – He wanted to watch these videos endlessly, says Sarkar’s mother to the Times of India. Recently, the wood prodigy Sarkar also got to meet world champion Magnus Carlsen. Ahead of a major chess tournament in India that Carlsen was to play, the 3-year-old was present together with his parents and the coach. The master from Norway was clearly impressed by the three-year-old. – I have a nephew who will be four years old in a few days. He is a smart youngster, but I can’t imagine him getting a rating of 1500 in the near future, said Carlsen in connection with the Tata Steel Masters tournament. He had a simple and concrete piece of advice for Anish Sarkar. – Try to enjoy chess as much as you can. Don’t think about ratings, results, titles and so on. It comes automatically. Just do what you love. Claim refuted In the book “Chess or life”, Atle Grønn writes that “never believe a father or mother who tells you that the three-year-old has learned to play chess”. By this he meant that since the goal of chess is to checkmate the king, it is too abstract a concept for three-year-olds to learn this. “A three-year-old can knock out other pieces, but in checkmate the king is not dead or knocked out, he is just captured and confined,” Grønn continues in the book. Three-year-old Anish Sarkar excelled in an U9 state tournament in West Bengal in October. There he took a whopping 5.5 out of 8 points against players who were up to six years older than him, according to Aftenposten. – What do you think about your claim from your book? Atle Grønn laughs before he answers: – My claim was actually refuted right after I published it, says Grønn. He refers to the story of then three-year-old Mikhail Osipov, who in 2016 got a lot of attention in Russia because he was so good at chess. On television he got to play against, among others, former world champion Anatoly Karpov, and in the following period he had access to the best Russian trainers. – He was three years old in 2016, so he is now 11. Now there is nothing good at all, says Grønn. Osipov did not get a rating as early as Indian Sarkar, and just as Grønn points out, Osipov does not have more than just over 1600 in rating now as an eleven-year-old. Do you think Anish Sarkar can reach the top of the world in chess? Yes, when one shows such potential already as a three-year-old, he can become unstoppable. No, I agree with Atle Grønn. Show result – Pets that do tricks And that is exactly what Atle Grønn’s point is: It is impossible to know, no matter how much a three-year-old excels, whether he will be really good at chess. – You hear all the time about wood prodigies. But we don’t know if this three-year-old is willing to train as a seven-year-old or has a genuine interest in chess. They are a bit like pets that do tricks, says Grønn and continues: – It’s a bit like teaching a three-year-old advanced ways to multiply. Such as 120 times 315 and such. It is incredibly impressive if a three-year-old does that, but it does not mean that the three-year-old will become a mathematician. – So you don’t want to predict a brilliant career for Anish Sarkar? – No. It is an impressive quality he has, but it is only a small part of becoming a good chess player. It doesn’t hurt to have the qualities he has, but he has to draw the winning lot ten more times on ten other qualities to become really good, concludes Atle Grønn. Gukild: – I’m never going back here 01:52 The technique is causing a stir: – Must reconsider 00:37 Here he is pushed off the barrier: – Scandal 00:48 Here the shoulder is dislocated 00:15 Show more Published 27.11.2024, at 11.14 Updated 27.11.2024, at 11.21
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Anish Sarkar (3) is causing a stir in the chess world – Atle Grønn is not convinced – news Sport – Sports news, results and broadcast schedule
