India, March 30 -- Seven years ago, Nihal Sarin became the youngest-ever Indian to cross the 2600 Elo barrier in the live ratings. He was 14 years and 10 months then.

Over the years, the Indian prodigy group has swelled in numbers, skyrocketed in ratings and performances and one of them even went on to become world champion last year at 18. Three young Indians feature in the top 10 live ratings today, two of them in the top five. Nihal is not one of them. His journey has been markedly different. Unlike his Indian peers, the 20-year-old who played chess online extensively growing up, picked up the tag of being a monster at speed chess. Over the past couple of months, he appears to have begun focusing on playing more classical chess and ha...