18-year old Sankalp Gupta secured the three required GM norms in just 24 days toachieve the Grandmaster title.

Sankalp Gupta has become India’s 71st Grandmaster by scoring 6.5 points in the GM Ask 3 round-robin event at Arandjelovac in Serbia. He won five games, drew three, and lost one to Rudik Makrarian (Russia) to take second place in the chess tournament.

Sankalp played three tournaments on the trot where his rating performances were at 2599 and above. The teenager from Maharashtra has also touched the 2500 Elo rating mark during the tournament.

Indian Chess legend Viswanathan Anand congratulated Gupta on becoming a GM. “Been a great weekend for Indian chess again ! Congrats to our new entrant … Now how long till we get to our 100th GM??” he tweeted.

The All India Chess Federation also praised Sankalp Gupta. AICF tweeted, “Nagpur based teenager Sankalp Gupta becomes the 71st Grandmaster of the country after completing the requirement to be next GM of the country by securing the final norm at Serbia. AICF congratulate Sankalp for the remarkable achievement.”