Chess prodigy Nihal Sarin, 14 years old, is the latest Indian Grandmaster as he earned his third and final norm at the Abu Dhabi Masters event.
Nihal is India’s 53rd GM and the 12th youngest of all time. He earned his final norm after a draw against Uzbekistan’s Temur Kuybokarov in the eighth round of the Abu Dhabi Masters event, which ensured he just had to turn up for the final round against Hungarian GM Richard Rapport.
This has been a good week for Indian chess as, on Monday, Vaishali R, sister of the world’s second-youngest Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa, became the latest Woman Grandmaster (WGM) from India.
Nihal closed in on his final Grandmaster norm on Monday after settling for a draw with Romanian Grandmaster Constantin Lupulescu in the seventh round.
The Kerala boy became the third Grandmaster from his state after GN Gopal and SL Narayanan.
The chess community sent their tributes to the latest entrant to the GM club, starting with the man who started it all for India, Viswanathan Anand.
Congrats and welcome to @NihalSarin ! The boys are on a roll!
— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) August 15, 2018
Congratulations on the GM title, which may be merely the first step in a thousand mile journey, but also one of the annoying distractions around in the career of a lot of players. (5/5) @ChessbaseIndia @ChessBase @chess24com @chesscom @chesscom_in
— Srinath Narayanan (@nsrinath69) August 14, 2018
Congratulations to @NihalSarin of India! He just became the 53rd GM of this great chess nation at the age of 14 years (1 mo+1 day) after scoring his final GM norm at Abu Dhabi Open with 1 rd to spare! @chessfederation @FIDE_chess @EuropeEchecs @chessdom @AD_Chess_Club @UAEChess pic.twitter.com/OFB7vtAKyv
— Susan Polgar (@SusanPolgar) August 15, 2018
From the boy who never sits to the boy who never stops! :)
— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) August 14, 2018
Keep moving @NihalSarin! Keep moving! You have a long way to go!#53rdGMofIndia
Photo: @amrutamokal pic.twitter.com/b92L1b5wJv
Congratulations to Nihal sarin for becoming GM,Looking forward to see him in top ten of the world
— Bharat Singh Chauhan (@Bharatchess64) August 14, 2018
Jo Bole So Nihal! @NihalSarin is India's 53rd GM!
— Devangshu Datta (@devangshudatta) August 15, 2018
Congratulations Nihal @NihalSarin !! Nihal, Prag & several other young GMs & WGMs in the making are sure to propel Indian #Chess to even greater heights!👍 https://t.co/OA34kkxJeQ
— Ponnuswamy Konguvel (@konguvelp) August 14, 2018
Heartiest congratulations @NihalSarin for becoming a Grandmaster!! Hope to see you at the top of the world in a few years! Well done.
— Vishal Sareen (@vishalsareen) August 14, 2018
Congrats to @NihalSarin on becoming a GM! A future elite player that's for sure
— Kostya Kavutskiy (@hellokostya) August 14, 2018
This guy is @NihalSarin. He is 14 y.o. Today he became 53th #Indian #GM 🇮🇳
— Keti Tsatsalashvili (@KetiTss) August 15, 2018
We took this photo some years ago in France at Cappelle, on the request of his mom.
I am very #happy, also #proud of him, and wish Nihal bright future. @ChessbaseIndia @chessfederation @indiachess pic.twitter.com/3Ldm8NvkL8