Nivaan Khandhadia, a Grade 2 student of GIIS SMART Campus, had a podium finish in the Under-7 category at the World School Individual Chess Championship 2019 in Turkey, winning the title of “Candidate Master - Elect” in a tough competition where 392 players from 33 countries participated.

The 7-year old Nivaan, who is the youngest rated chess player, won a bronze in the event, and has, in April 2019, set a record of playing 500 games of competitive chess. The title Candidate Master is given by World Chess body FIDE.

A whiz-kid, Nivaan started playing chess at the age of 4.5 years. He was introduced to the game of chess as a board game by his father, but his immediate grasp of the game and winning streak astonished everyone. Seeing his deep interest and understanding of the game, Nivaan was put under professional chess training and started participating in tournaments.

Nivaan has a bag full of achievements to his credit. The young chess master has won 46 trophies and 12 medals. He has defeated players like, 30 years old Ranjan Kotian and 44 years old Dwaipayan Basu, who are much more experienced as compared to Nivaan.

The young chess master has earned many titles for playing chess brilliantly. In 2018 he became India's youngest rated chess player and World’s No. 10. Nivaan also earned his Elo rating of 1137 by beating people much older than him. The rating calculates relative skills-level of players.

Nivaan’s achievement has been widely covered by the media and the little genius has appeared a couple of times in Indian print and radio.

There is no stopping for Nivaan as he readily moves towards his goal of becoming the world’s youngest grandmaster by his dedicated effort and passion for the game.