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Aswath S achieved the feat at Pune International Round-Robin tournament on Wednesday.
Aswath S (left) with Shyam Sundar (Picture Credit: X/Shyam_chess)
Fresh from completing his Class 10 board examinations, Aswath S. has become India’s 98th Grandmaster after a runners-up finish at the Pune International Round-Robin tournament. Needing victories in his final three games to secure his third Grandmaster norm, Aswath rose to the occasion in emphatic fashion.
Awath sealed the achievement with a win over Kannan Vaidyanathan in the final round, playing with the black pieces. He finished with 7 points while GM Abhijeet Gupta won the tournament with 7.5 points.
The Chennai youngster had earned his first two Grandmaster norms by winning the Grenke Open in Germany last year before claiming the First Saturday GM Round-Robin tournament in Budapest. He then stepped away from competitive chess for nearly four months to focus on his Class 10 board examinations.
Returning to competition, Aswath clinched the Pune International Round-Robin title on Wednesday to secure his third and final Grandmaster norm.
“It is very amazing to feel that I’m a Grandmaster right now,” Aswath was quoted as saying by timesofIndia.com. “It had slipped away for almost the last two years. I crossed 2500 in December, so after that, I had to score only the norms, but it took me so long.”
Aswath’s chess journey began at the age of three under the guidance of his father, AC Shiva, who was also his first coach.
“I started playing chess when I was three years old, and my coach was my father. At that age, I used to roam around the academy saying the chess pieces’ names. Then I started playing and entered a tournament at the age of four,” Aswath said.
“At the age of seven, when I played the Under-7 Tamil Nadu State Championship, I won the tournament with a score of 9 out of 9. That was one of the biggest motivations for me to take chess as a profession,” he added.
Aswath is currently coached by Grandmaster M. Shyam Sundar at the Chess Thulir Academy in Chennai.
“Aswath is a hardworking, disciplined, motivated and determined player. He doesn’t have any social media distractions. He is fully focused. I think he will continue to grow,” Sundar told The Hindu.
Having achieved his long-awaited Grandmaster title, Aswath has now set his sights on the next milestone – raising his Elo rating from 2517 to 2600.
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Feroz Khan has been covering sports for over 12 years now and is currently working with Network18 as Principal Correspondent. He embarked on his journey in 2011 and has since acquired vast experience …Read More
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