Five-year-old Tejas Tiwari is youngest FIDE-rated Chess player in world

Five-year-old Tejas Tiwari became the youngest FIDE-rated player in the world, the apex body of Chess confirmed in a tweet on Thursday.

Currently, Tejas has a FIDE standard rating of 1149.

The kindergarten student achieved his first rating (of 1149) at the first Late Dhiraj Singh Raghuvanshi Open FIDE-rated chess tournament in Rudrapur, Uttarakhand, FIDE said.

When Tejas was three-and-a-half years old, he got interested in the sport watching his family members playing.

FIDE, the international chess federation, said in a tweet: "Meet Tejas Tiwari, the youngest FIDE-rated player! He is five years old and has a FIDE Standard rating of 1149! "The Indian chess player got interested in chess by watching family members playing when he was three and a half years old. He understood how the game is played very quickly. At four, he started playing in district and state-level competitions, surprising people with his game. Soon, he was competing in national-level competitions outside the state."

At the age of four, he started playing in district and state-level competitions and soon was competing in national-level events outside the state.

Tejas played his first FIDE-rated rapid tournament at the age of four years and three months. Since then, he has played various FIDE-rated events in 13 states of India.

He won first place in the Under-8 category in the Uttarakhand State Open tournament in 2022. Last year, he won the Under-5 category of the National School Championship in Bhubaneswar.