Tamizh Amudhan can be seen sitting on the floor of his Thiruthangal house (a suburb of Sivakasi), legs outstretched, laptop propped up on a pillow, and the room only lit by the feeble flicker of a candle. (Image via special arrangement)

Sivakasi, the city known for being the firecracker capital of India, jolted the chess world with an almighty bang on Friday night. Tamizh Amudhan, an eight-year-old boy from the Tamil Nadu city, took down Vincent Keymer, the 21-year-old German grandmaster currently ranked 7th in the world, in an online blitz game in the Freestyle Friday tournament.

What was even more remarkable was a photo of Tamizh playing the event: the boy can be seen sitting on the floor of his Thiruthangal house (a suburb of Sivakasi), legs outstretched, laptop propped up on a pillow, and the room only lit by the feeble flicker of a candle. Due to thunderstorms in the city, the power had gone off in the area.…