Record-setting chess prodigies are getting younger

An 8-year-old recently beat a 37-year-old grandmaster. NPR’s Scott Detrow talks with ChessKid.com’s Mike Klein about the new generation of whiz kids.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

So when I was 8 years old, I’m pretty sure my obsessions circled around hockey and “The Muppets,” but other 8-year-olds are different. Take Ashwath Kaushik. Kaushik is obsessed with chess. Not only that – he is so good at it that he recently won a chess game against a 37-year-old grandmaster. This sets a new world record for youngest player to beat somebody of that level. And it leads to a question – how does an 8-year-old get so good so quickly? Mike Klein is the voice of ChessKid.com. He’s also the voice that Kaushik heard nearly every day when he would practice online. And he’s joining us now. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

MIKE KLEIN: Thanks, Scott, for having me.

DETROW: So how does an 8-year-old get so good at chess that he’s beating somebody at that grandmaster level with decades of experience?

KLEIN: In a word, technology. When I was 8 years old, chess was very much played exclusively in the over-the-board realm. And nowadays kids can log in, watch instructional videos, get games against top players all over the world any hour of any day. At any given moment, there’s more than 200,000 people playing chess online on various chess websites, including ChessKid, and there’s just no barriers to access to information or top-quality games.

DETROW: And my understanding is that this record was actually a pretty recent record when Ashwath broke it, and that another 8-year-old had recently set it. Like, how many younger kids are we talking about, at this point, are tapping into this online community and getting these advanced skills?

KLEIN: More kids than ever are playing from around the world, including from communities and countries that may not have historically had a strong chess culture, because, again, this leveling of access to all the…