Chess: 14-year-old Nihal Sarin has become India's newest Grandmaster
Nihal Sarin has become India's 53rd Grandmaster after drawing in the eighth round of the Abu Dhabi masters against Uzbekistan's Temur Kuybokarov. Sarin is the third Grandmaster from the state of Kerala after GN Gopal and SL Narayanan. This week, we also saw Vaishali R becoming India's youngest woman Grandmaster. Here are further details.
Sarin received his first and second Grandmaster norms at the TV2 Fagernes and the Reykjavik Open. He had drawn against Romanian Grandmaster Constantin Lupulescu in the seventh round of the Abu Dhabi Masters before drawing again in the eighth round. Sarin just needs his opponent, Hungarian GM Rapport (Elo rating 2,719) to turn up in the last round to make his GM status official.
Sarin, third youngest International Master in the world, has a current Elo Rating of 2,556. He won the 2014 Under-10 World Chess Championship and in 2015, lost out on the Under-12 Championship with a narrow margin. Nihal secured gold in the Under-10 World Blitz Chess Championship. He was the Rapid and Blitz gold medalist in the Asian Youth Championship in Tashkent in 2014.
Congrats and welcome to @NihalSarin ! The boys are on a roll!
— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) August 15, 2018
