Raunak Sadhwani becomes India's 65th Grandmaster

10/21/2019

Indian chess player Raunak Sadhwani has become the 65th Grandmaster from the country as he continued his dream run at the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. Sadhwani got the better of Russia's Alexander Motylev to reach five points which is one more than what is needed to be a Grandmaster.

At just 13 years, nine months and 28 days Raunak Sadhwani has become a grandmaster by winning the ninth round against Russia's Alexander Motylev at the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss at Douglas. The Nagpur lad has only one defeat in the event so far which came in the eighth round against Markus Ragger of Austria.

India’s veteran chess star Viswanathan Anand had earlier heaped praise on the youngster and had commented that Sadhwani plays a lot better than his rankings.

“I was very, very lucky to win. When I saw the pairing, I knew it could be tough because Sadhwani was ridiculously underrated. And of course, over the board, he played much stronger than his rating. So I feel relieved to have won,” Anand had said, reported Sportstar.

“My words almost came to haunt me during my game against him.”

Now, Sadhwani has joined the list of India’s young Grandmasters which also includes Nihal Sarin, R Praggnanandhaa and D. Gukesh.