Chess prodigy Nihal Sarin, 14 years old, is the latest Indian Grandmaster as he earned his third and final norm at the Abu Dhabi Masters event.
Nihal is India’s 53rd GM and the 12th youngest of all time. He earned his final norm after a draw against Uzbekistan’s Temur Kuybokarov in the eighth round of the Abu Dhabi Masters event, which ensured he just had to turn up for the final round against Hungarian GM Richard Rapport.
This has been a good week for Indian chess as, on Monday, Vaishali R, sister of the world’s second-youngest Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa, became the latest Woman Grandmaster (WGM) from India.
Nihal closed in on his final Grandmaster norm on Monday after settling for a draw with Romanian Grandmaster Constantin Lupulescu in the seventh round.
The Kerala boy became the third Grandmaster from his state after GN Gopal and SL Narayanan.
The chess community sent their tributes to the latest entrant to the GM club, starting with the man who started it all for India, Viswanathan Anand.
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