Pranav Anand has become India's 76th Chess Grandmaster: Details here
Bengaluru teenager Pranav Anand is now India's 76th Grandmaster. The 15-year-old unlocked this achievement after crossing the 2,500 Elo mark in the ongoing World Youth Chess Championship in Mamaia, Romania on Thursday. Notably, Pranav cleared each of the three GM norms required for the title, besides scoring over 2,500 Elo points. He secured his final GM norm in July this year. Here's more.
Pranav aced each of his GM norms
Pranav's first two GM norms came in the Sitges Open and Vezerkepso GM Round Robin tournaments in January and March 2022 respectively. He drew against Spain's GM Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli (2,619) to claim his final GM norm at the 55th Biel Chess Festival in July. Pranav beat France's Augustin Droin to pocket the U-14 gold, a day after meeting the requirements of the Grandmaster.
Pranav faced sturdy competitors in Biel
In addition to beating the Spanish GM in Biel, Pravav bested GMs Maxime Lagarde of France (2,631), Sethuraman S.P. (2,623), besides drawing against Aryan Chopra (2,610), and GM Shant Sargsyan of Armenia (2,661).
Pranav is good in calculation and end games: Saravanan
"He [Pranav] can work for any number of hours. He is especially good in calculation and end games...they are his two biggest strengths right now," V Saravanan, Pranav's coach told PTI after his ward won nine points from the 11 rounds at the concurrent World Championships. Saravanan added that if not for the pandemic, Pranav could've been a GM at least a year ago.
Pranav has pulled a laudworthy feat!
Who is the youngest chess Grandmaster?
In July 2021, Abhimanyu Mishra, the teen prodigy from New Jersey, became the world's youngest chess Grandmaster. Abhimanyu, at 12 years, four months, and 25 days, broke the 19-year-old record of Sergey Karjakin with the third norm in Budapest. Karjakin, who became the world champion in 2016, had earned this title at 12 years and seven months.
