Anurag Mhamal is first Goan to become Grand Master (elect)

Team Herald

PANJIm: Dempo Goodwill Ambassador (promoted by Devashri Real Estate Developers), IM Anurag Mhamal achieved his third  and the final Grand Master (GM) norm at the just concluded Pardubice Czec Open Grand Master chess Tournament  held at Pardubice Czec. With this, he became the first Goan to become the GM (elect). 

 Anurag scored 6 points out of 9 rounds and with the performance rating of 2603, achieved his last and the final norm to qualify for Grand Master title. Anurag started of as 90th seed to finish 20th in the final standing and gained 50 Elo points from this tournament. He will now reach to 2452 Elo rating and need more 48 Elo points so as to officially get the title certificate from FIDE (World Chess Federation).

He defeated GM Nabaty Tamir (2622) of Israel, GM Gavrilov Alexei (2465) of Rusia, IM Gurevich Daniel of USA, IM Yuffa Daniil of Russia and drew with IM Ladva Ottomar and IM Abhimanyu Puranik of India.

It was not an easy task for Anurag as he had to fight for 128 moves and almost for 6 hours to get a draw in the final round with IM Abhimanyu Puranik of India. Finally, his dream of becoming the Grand Master which is the highest title in chess will be fulfilled soon after successfully winning his 3rd norm.

He  got his 1st GM norm at Tata 50th National Premier Chess Championship held at Kolkata, India in 2012.  Second Grand Master norm at International tournament at Paris, France January 2016 and 3rd and final norm now at Pardubice Czec.

Anurag became the first IM of Goa in 2013 and with lots of ups and down had to wait for three years for his 2nd & 3rd GM norm. He is the only Goan to have achieved this.

Other Goans playing in this tournament were WGM Bhakti Kulkarni (scored 5 points), Niraj Saripalli (scored 3 points), Nandhini Saripalli (scored 5 points in "B"category gaining 150 Elo points from Spain & Czec tour) and Aishwarya Thorat playing in "C" category. She scored 5 points.

Anurag is reaching Goa on August 2.