Raunak Sadhwani, 13, is all set to become India’s 65th Chess Grandmaster. The Indian has a round to go at the FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss 2019 and technically needs his opponents to show up for the next rounds so that he earns the third and final GM norm.
At the tournament so far, he has had six draws, one loss and one win against GM Sanan Sjugirov, which have helped him cross the live rating of 2500. He lost his first match in the eighth round, to GM Markus Ragger but that should not affect his chances.
According to a report by The Hindu, Sadhwani had a rating of 2479 at the start of the tournament and already gained 23 points which will take him to 2500. The youngster already had two GM norms and therefore just needs to be part of the next round at the tournament to get his final norm.
Not yet! Please note that he still needs to meet some requirements: at least two of his remaining opponents have to show up. So, yes, he is almost there, but not officially yet.
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) October 18, 2019
The official count will likely be 13 years, 9 months and 28 days :-)
The teen from Nagpur is an International Master and got his first GM norm at the Aeroflot Open 2019 while his second GM norm was at the Porticcio Open 2019, according to Chessbase.in.
Sadhwani had a training stint with former world champion Vladimir Kramnik recently, according to a report by The Times of India. The youngster worked with the Russian GM as part of the Kramnik-Microsense India Chess Program held in Switzerland in August this year.
