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Dombivli lad gets chess International Master title
Attains the mandatory 2400 Elo rating after sterling performances in two tournaments in Greece recently.
Updated : Sep 28, 2017, 09:59 PM IST
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That Vishy Anand’s amazing run of success in world chess has not had much of an impact in Mumbai can be seen from this piece of information - the city has not had an International Master in the last 16 years.
Rahul Shetty was the last IM from Mumbai and he got the title way back in 1994. Since then there has been no IM from the city leave alone a Grandmaster.
However, 16-year-old Prasanna Rao, a resident of Dombivli, became an IM a few days ago and is the second from the central suburb after Vikramaditya Kamble to do so. The Vidyaniketan School student, who has been making waves at the school and junior level, got his third and final norm at the Commonwealth Chess championship in New Delhi in May. He had earned the first two norms in France a month prior to that.
Since earning the three norms, Rao has been waiting to make the mandatory 2400 in the Elo rating. He got the required points after a good showing in two consecutive tournaments in Greece.
At the beginning of July, his rating was 2373, needing 27 points more for an IM title. He gained 13 points from the Rethymno chess tournament in Greece and then 17 points in the Paleohora tournament, in the same country. He is currently playing in Kawala, Greece. His current Elo rating is 2403.
“I’m very happy to have become an IM,” Rao told DNA from Greece. “The fact that I became the youngest IM from the region gives me more satisfaction.” He completed his norm with a draw against a Ukrainian GM of 2610 rating. “That game was very satisfying because I drew with a highly-rated GM with black pieces,” said Rao, adding he now wants to go for the GM title.
Rao, who idolises Anand and Magnus Carlsen, is highly rated among Mumbai youngsters and GM Pravin Thipsay says he is quite impressed by the Dombivli lad.
“He has no obvious weaknesses. He’s a good promise for the future,” the former national champion said. Rao, who just passed X class with 90 per cent marks, said he wants to devote three months for his studies and nine months for chess.
