India's 5-year-old Tejas Tiwari is world's youngest player with FIDE rating

The youngest FIDE-rated player in the world is India's Tejas Tiwari, who achieved the feat at the tender age of five.

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.

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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.

According to Sharad Tiwari, his father, who coaches him, Tejas practises two to three hours a day and aims to become a Grandmaster and world champion.

"He is a UKG student of Dikshant International School in Haldwani and practises 2-3 hours a day. His aim is to become a GM and world champion one day," Sharad told PTI.

Sharad further said that Tejas has so far participated in five national championships.

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."