Kochi: SL Narayanan has become Kerala’s second and India’s 40th Grandmaster in Chess. Fide conferred the title on the Thiruvananthapuram native at the Philippines international open on Saturday.
In the process, the 17-year-old has surpassed G N Gopal, Kerala’s first and only other GM, as the youngest from the state to achieve the title. Gopal was 18 when he became a GM in 2007.
The soft-spoken attacking player reached the stipulated 2500 Elo rating mark as he earned the third and final norm after an impressive showing at Olongapo City. He started the event with a rating 2481 and is set to earn 20 more.
Narayanan finished on 6.5 points while Ukrainian GM Vitaly Sivuk clinched the title on seven points from 10 rounds. The Kerala boy lost just one round, but had two wins and five draws from his ties against GMs.
He notably upset fourth seed Chinese GM Lu Shanglei in round two and on the final day he held Russian GM Anton Demchenko to a draw before toppling Filipino GM Antonio Rogelio Jr to achieve his GM dream.
The Philippines event is also a lucky charm for Narayanan as it was the same tournament in which he achieved the second norm, last December. He took first of the three requisite GM norms at the world junior in Pune in October 2014.
Narayanan holds the record for Kerala’s youngest International Master, the title he held previously, since the age of 15. He is the third Indian to be a GM this year after Tamil Nadu boys Aravindh Chithambaram (January) and Ashwin Jayaram (June).
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