Dimitri komarov

In this Indian name, the name Sarin is dimitri komarov patronymic, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Nihal. Indian chess player and chess prodigy.

He achieved the title of Grandmaster at age 14. In 2018, he passed the Elo rating of 2600 at 14 years old, which at the time made him the third youngest player in history to do so. As a junior player, Nihal was the World Under-10 champion in 2014. In 2015, he tied for first place in the World Under-12 championship, taking the silver medal on tiebreaks.

Nihal was born on 13 July 2004 in Thrissur, Kerala, India. Sarin Abdulsalam, Nihal’s father, is a dermatologist while his mother, Shijin Ammanam Veetil Ummar, is a psychiatrist. He has a younger sister, Neha. His family spent their first few years in Kottayam.

He could recognize the capitals and the flags of 190 countries by the age of three. At the same age, he also had managed to know and recite from memory the scientific names of insects and plants. By the time he was in upper kindergarten, he spoke fluent English, and by the age of six, having just enrolled into the first grade, he knew all the multiplication tables until sixteen. Nihal began learning chess at the age of six. In order for his son to not feel bored during school vacations, his father introduced Nihal to a chess set, and his grandfather A. Ummar taught him the rules at Kottayam, where he was a student of Excelsior English School.

Nihal’s first coach was Mathew P. Joseph Pottoore, the school’s chess coach who instructed him twice a week in the beginning and then gave Sarin special individual classes. In 2011, Nihal and his family returned to Thrissur where Nihal joined Devamatha CMI Public School. Nihal won the Kerala State Championship in the Under-07 category in 2011, the Under-09 title twice, the Under-11 title twice and Under-15 title once.