[7] By the time he was in upper kindergarten, he spoke fluent English, and by the age of six, having just enrolled into the first grade, he knew all the multiplication tables until sixteen.

In order for his son to not feel bored during school vacations, his father introduced Nihal to a chess set, and his grandfather A.

Nihal's first big break came at the World Youth Chess Championship in the Under-10 category, which was held in Durban, South Africa in September 2014.

In the last rounds of the tournament, Nihal successively defeated the top two seeds of his category: IM Awonder Liang and FM Nodirbek Abdusattorov.

He was conferred the FIDE Master (FM) title by the World chess Federation in the same year as he had crossed live Elo rating of 2300.

[17] In Hasselbacken Open 2016 held at the turn of April in Stockholm, Nihal beat Lithuanian grandmaster Eduardas Rozentalis.

At the World Youth Chess Olympiad in December 2017, Nihal played for India Green, helping the country secure a silver medal.

He scored wins against grandmasters Ahmed Adly and Elshan Moradiabadi and drew with Richard Rapport, Gata Kamsky and Mustafa Yilmaz.

[25][26] Nihal made his debut at the Isbank Turkish Super League in July 2018, leading the team Genc Akademisyenler on the first board.

Starting as the last seed, Nihal scored 3.0/9, with draws against Viswanathan Anand, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Sergey Karjakin, Pentala Harikrishna, Vidit Gujrathi, and Surya Shekhar Ganguly, losing only three games to Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian, and Wesley So.

Not fully there, but he’s a huge talent what I’ve seen of him.”[36][37] Nihal ended 2018 at the World Blitz Championship in Saint Petersburg, Russia where he scored 13½/21 with a rating performance of 2777, taking the 11th place on tiebreak.

[38][39] In the 2019 TePe Sigeman & Co. Masters tournament held in Malmo, Sweden, Nihal finished 6th place to cross the 2600 Elo mark in rating.

[40] At the 2019 French Team Chess Championship, Nihal scored 6.0/11 on the first board and helped Mulhouse Philidor finish a historic third place.

[49] On 10 December, Nihal registered his third successful win by defeating Arjun Erigaisi in the finals of the Super Juniors Cup organized by Chessbase India.

[50] His fourth tournament win for the year 2020 came after he defeated GM Shant Sargsyan of Armenia in the finals of the World Youth Chess Championship 2020 held online and organized by FIDE.

[51] He was crowned under-18 World Youth Chess Champion on 22 December 2020, and won the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize for his game against IM Francesco Sonis.

[52][53] Nihal won the World Online Youth Championships 2020 in the Under-18 category by defeating GM Shant Sargsyan from Armenia.

[54] On 19 April 2021, the 19 participants faced off against then-world champion Magnus Carlsen in a Blitz format with 3 minutes being allotted per move with no time increment.

[56] In June 2021, playing the Silver Lake Open in Serbia, his first over the board tournament since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nihal scored 8.0/9 with a 2807 rating performance to take first place.

[65] In the 2022 Speed Chess Championship Nihal defeated Anish Giri 15.0–14.0 and Ding Liren 17.0–9.0 to reach the Semifinals where he lost to Hikaru Nakamura 10.5–14.5.

2 Ding Liren, Nihal won praise for his sportsmanship when he resigned in three moves against after the Chinese player lost the previous game due to poor internet connection.

[68] For the first time, Nihal broke into the 2700 barrier in live rating after he won with the black pieces against GM Paulius Pultinevicius in Round 2 of the European Chess Club Cup in 2023.