Malayali chess star Nihal Sarin outsmarts world’s leading players to clinch strongest online event

India's Malayali Grandmaster Nihal Sarin continued his stellar form by winning a Titled Tuesday Grand Prix on the popular online platform, chessdotcom.

Nihal outplayed a strong field comprising the likes of Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Wesley So, Hans Niemann, Arjun Erigaisi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, among others.

Nihal won nine of the 11 rounds and drew a game, while losing once. He defeated American star Niemann in the final round to finish on 9.5 points and edge So and Erigaisi (9 points each) to first place.

Nihal has been in red-hot form since the start of the year, winning the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid event and the Menorca Open more recently. At the Menorca event in Spain, Nihal famously beat World Champion D Gukesh twice in four days.

Nihal's FIDE rating has been steadily improving in recent times. His classical rating as of this month is 2723, which puts him in the top 25 in the world.

Nihal is the youngest of the three grandmasters from Kerala, with G N Gopal and S L Narayanan being the others.

Titled Tuesday events are contested by titled players with chessdotcom profiles. The players are asked to be available for Zoom calls for fair play reasons. Top players often use events like Titled Tuesday to stay sharp and claim bragging rights. Due to the participation of most of the leading players in the world, Titled Tuesday tournaments are often regarded as the strongest online chess events.