Indian chess moved ahead on the board, so to speak, as Aditya S Samant became the nation’s 83rd chess Grandmaster on Wednesday.
An International Master (IM), the 17-year-old became a GM when he commenced his ninth round game against compatriot Aryan Chopra at the BielChess MTO 2023 tournament in Switzerland.
Samant had drawn his eighth round game against Bu Xiangzhi. He only had to play the ninth round, no matter the result, to get the GM norm.
To become a GM, a player has to get three GM norms and cross the live rating of 2,500 Elo points. The Maharashtra youngster had already crossed the 2500 Elo mark in the live ratings and had secured two GM norms. As such, the third and final norm was all he required to become India's latest Grandmaster.
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Going into the ninth round game, Samant’s live rating was 2525.4.
Samant notched up his first GM norm at the Abu Dhabi Masters in August 2022. In December, he secured his second GM norm at the 3rd El Llobregat Open.
The Twitter handle of the Biel Chess Festival said in a post, "Exciting! Congratulations to Aditya Samant S!#BielChess seems to be a good place to crown Indian Grandmasters! - 2021 it was @HarshitRaja1 who earned his 3rd GM-norm in Biel - 2022 it was @GMPranavAnand who earned his 3rd GM-norm in Biel - and 2023 now Aditya Samant S!"
In May, Telangana's V Prraneeth had become the country's 82nd GM.
