Aswath, 16, wins Grenke Open and secures first GM norm
A swath S, 16, has taken a giant step towards becoming a GM. Playing as the 38th seed, he won the
Grenke Open chess tournament
in Karlsruhe, Germany, with a score of 8/9. He made his maiden
GM norm
and also touched a live rating of Elo 2500.
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It's the same festival in which Carlsen reigned supreme in the Freestyle Open with 9/9.
Aswath
(Elo 2466), another prodigy from the Tamil Nadu stable, scored seven wins — the most impressive of them coming in the last round against Muradil Mohammed of Azerbaijan with black pieces in 69 moves of rook and pawns endgame. He also beat Brandon Jacobson of USA, who also tallied 8/9, along the way.
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Aswath won the top prize of 20,000 euros — more than Rs 17 lakh after taxes.
The teenager defeated three GMs (above Elo 2500) in the meet and drew with third seed Croatian Ivan Saric (2659). There were about 10 players above Elo 2600 in the tournament. Aswath played nine different openings at Grenke and castled in each game.
He won another tournament in France a few days ago as the fourth seed with 7.5/9. His coach for two years, Shyam Sundar, had played this event in 2019. Back then, there were 20 players above Elo 2600 in the field.
In both editions, there were 800-plus players making it a total of nine rounds - far less than required for correct final standings in such a big field.
Sundar said Aswath had made tremendous progress in past two years. The progress could be seen in the results too, as he has added about 250 Elo points in the last 24 months. 'It's a huge achievement and I am super happy for him,' said Sundar. 'He is a hard-working kid and a confident person.
He has the ability to bounce back and fight in any situation.'
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