Shreyas Royal today won the British chess championship aged only 17. By my calculation that makes him the youngest holder of the title - he breaks Michael Adams's record by a couple of months, just as he broke David Howell's record to become Britain's youngest ever grandmaster at 15.
I first wrote about Shreyas in 2018, under the headline
The government is forcing Britain's best chess prospect to leave the country
There I said:
Nine-year-old Shreyas Royal has variously been described as “the greatest British chess prospect in a generation” (Malcolm Pein) and "the best prospect the country has ever seen" (Chris Ward).
But, reports the Guardian:
Shreyas Royal has lived in the UK since he was three but has been told he will be sent back to India when his father’s work visa expires in September.
The home office soon relented, and all the claims made for Shreyas then turn out to have been justified.
Sadly he won't play for England at the forthcoming chess olympiad. The selectors went all Bazball and named their team of five early, at a time when Shreyas's form did not make him a certain pick, and he was one of the players who missed out.
But he looks certain to establish himself as Britain's strongest player within a year or two, unless one of the many talented juniors now coming through overtakes him before then.
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