KOCHI: Indian chess Grandmaster Nihal Sarin has received the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize which he won for the best game played at the FIDE Online World Cadets and Youth Championship which was held last December. The chess prodigy from Kerala had won gold in the under-18 open category last December.
In the semifinal of the competition, he beat Italian Francesco Sonis 1.5-0.5 and it was his game during this contest that he received the Brilliancy Prize which was announced on Twitter by International Chess Federation.
Nihal's victory against Italian International Master Francesco Sonis received five out of the nine judges' votes.
In the past few months, Nihal has won four titles.
After landing a silver for India at the Asian Team Championship, he won gold at the Chess Olympiad.
He was the winner of the Karpov Trophy after beating multiple Grandmasters including Etienne Bacrot in the quarterfinal, Ivan Cheparinov in the semifinal, and Ivan Cheparinov in the final.
He then went on to win the Junior Speed Chess Championship as well as the ChessBase India Super Juniors Cup before the recent gold in the World Championship.