Meet the kids leading Singapore’s rise on the chess board

SINGAPORE – Chess players Ashwath Kaushik and Zhang Yunyi are only 11 and nine, but these youngsters are already showing promise on the world stage, as Singapore looks to develop more young players in the game.

In 2024, Ashwath became the youngest player to beat a grandmaster – the highest title a player can achieve in the sport – when he defeated Poland’s Jacek Stopa in a classical game.

The Indian citizen represents Singapore internationally, having moved here in 2017 when he was one. His family has applied for permanent residency.

“I think I have grown a lot (since beating Stopa),” said Ashwath.

“I play more tactically now and my game is not up and down nowadays, unlike previously when my positions were crazy.”

Since defeating Stopa, he has gone on to beat two other grandmasters in the classical format – Lithuanian Eduardas Rozentalis in September 2025 and Norwegian Aksel Bu Kvaloy in January 2026.

They were not his only big-name scalps, as Ashwath also defeated grandmasters in other time control formats: American Praveen Balakrishnan in rapid and Poland’s Marcel Kanarek and Russians Gleb Dudin and Petr Kiriakov in blitz.

The Grade 6 pupil at Overseas Family School in Pasir Ris has an International Chess Federation (FIDE) Elo rating of 2,295 and is currently a FIDE master – two levels below grandmaster. He hopes to achieve the highest level in a few years.

He said: “My next goal now as a chess player is to slowly improve to get to the international master level, eventually, the international master title will come if I’m performing at that level and to get the grandmaster one or two years after that.”

His mother Rohini Ramachandran, a 39-year-old homemaker who travels with him for overseas tournaments, said: “(Since he beat Stopa) I can definitely see that shift where he has become a lot more independent and knowledgeable about what he needs to do.”

When asked about a potential chess career, she added: “We’re largely leaving it up to him.

“But he has a couple of other interests, and he enjoys school as well, so we are trying to balance that with the demands of chess, so that if at a later stage he wants to pursue something else, he has that option.

“But as of now he really enjoys chess and he’s really passionate about it. So we are just trying to support him as much as we can.”

Touted as one of the prodigies on the local chess scene, Ashwath recently competed at the ASEAN+ Age-Group Chess Championships at Our Tampines Hub from Aug 7 to 17. He finished 21st out of 40 – above four grandmasters – in the premier division for the classical category, and he was 13th out of 69 in the blitz category.

Singapore’s top player Tin Jingyao won gold in the classical premier division, edging out Vietnam’s Le Tuan Minh via tiebreaks.

Ashwath and Tin will next compete at the Sept 15-28 Chess Olympiad in Uzbekistan as part of a five-member Singapore team.

Another young player who excelled at the ASEAN+ Age-Group competition was Yunyi, who won the girls’ Under-10 rapid category.

Her foray into chess began in 2023, when her mum Gladys Gao wanted to introduce a “meaningful game” to her during her screen time on the iPad.

Gao said: “She’s kind of addicted to it and keeps on playing, but we have to restrict her screen time.

“That was the start, but of course after that we went to the Singapore Chess Federation (SCF), and then she started taking lessons.”

Yunyi, who has an Elo rating of 1,738 and was a triple medallist at the 2025 Asian Youth Chess Championships, also hopes to become a grandmaster one day.

She said: “The first time (I felt like) I was good at chess was after NSI (National Schools Individual Chess Championship).

“I did well in that tournament and met lots of friends. It was because I was one year younger and it was an under-eight category, so I started taking it seriously after that.”

SCF chief executive Kevin Goh believes that the young duo have the potential to go far. He said: “Both Ashwath and Yunyi are probably the strongest players of their age group at this point.”

“We have many, but they clearly stand out because of their outstanding results and also because of their commitment to the sport.

“Ashwath especially is incredibly motivated, he’s a big fighter and he takes every game competitively, regardless of who his opponent is, and I definitely think both these players will be integral members of our national team within the next five years.”

Goh hopes that their best players will eventually become part of the national team and win medals for the country.

But it is not only about trophies, as he added: “We want to have a supportive environment in which young players can pursue chess, (and hope) that chess can help them to become better people and they can contribute to society in a more meaningful manner.”