Anish Sarkar can reach the chess board in a tournament only when he sits on top of four piled-up chairs.

He is still in his “diapers” but the three-year-eight-month-old boy has a Fide rating of 1555.

Fide is the “world governing body for chess, organising tournaments, rankings, titles and awards”, its website says.

When Anish’s father communicated his rating to him, it did not mean much to the boy running around his house preparing for Diwali festivities on Thursday.

“He does not understand what he has achieved and we want it to remain that way. He plays chess because he enjoys the game,” said Reshma Chatterjee, Anish’s mother.

“I am happy,” he told his parents and asked for his favourite “french fries” as a special treat.

“Getting a Fide rating at this age and with a training of six months is commendable. Usually, players take as much as two to four years to get a rating. He is talented and brilliant and has a long way to go,” said Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua, vice-president of the All India Chess Federation, and president, Sara Bangla Daba Sangstha.

Anish started training at Dhanuka Dhunseri Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy in April and got a Fide rating in October.

In October, he participated in two tournaments, West Bengal State U-9 Open Chess Championship and the West Bengal State U-13 (Open) Fide Rated Chess Championship.

Anish’s tryst with chess started a couple of months before he turned three, when his mother gave him a chess board with large pieces to keep the toddler occupied.

“My challenge was to give him something that he would not be able to swallow, so I chose a board with large pieces,” said Chatterjee.

YouTube became a teacher in the beginning, she said.

“When he is not watching Peppa Pig, he is watching chess and we could not put him on anything else,” said his mother.

Along with his interest in chess, Anish is also engrossed in numbers and, eventually, math.

“He could back count from 100. At one point he knew the tables till 25,” said Chatterjee.

Anish was taken to the chess academy when he was just three years and two months, only to be turned away.

“We usually do not admit children below the age of five. But his parents insisted that we watch his game before making a decision. I gave him a few problems whichhe solved in no time,” said Barua, director of the academy.

The academy then relented and agreed to coach Anish.

“He would need to be as committed as he is now and have to give increasingly more time to chess,” he said. Since April, the Lower Nursery student at St James’ School has been going to the academy twice or thrice a week.

On days he has chess training in Chakraberia, the Kaikhali resident leaves home around 6.15am and is back only at 10pm.

“He goes to school in the morning. From there I take him directly to the academy around noon. He trains till 8pm,” said Chatterjee.

The mother and the son walk for about a kilometre from the academy and board a Metro train at Netaji Bhavan. They get off at Shyambazar, from where they take a bus to Kaikhali.

“It is a hectic schedule. He is putting in a lot of hard work at this age. The rating is well deserved. He enjoys playing for seven-eight hours.... We are proud as parents but we don’t want him to feel that,” said Chatterjee.

The homemaker mother and the schoolteacher father have set no expectations for the little one.

“He is still so young.He is playing now because he is enjoying it but one day he might lose interest in chess. So we do not expect anything from him and don’t want to put pressure on him,” Chatterjee said.

Anish’s only query to his parents: “Now that I am a rated player, will others be nervous to face me?”