Fourteen-year-old Bharath Subramaniyam on Sunday, January 9 became India's 73rd chess Grandmaster, after completing his third and final GM norm at Vergani Cup Open in Italy. The Chennai-based player scored 6.5 points from nine rounds along with four others to finish seventh overall in the event. He secured his third GM norm here and also touched the requisite 2,500 (Elo) mark. Notably, to become a GM, a player has to secure three GM norms and cross the live rating of 2,500 Elo points.

The All India Chess Federation (AICF) also congratulated the teenager on his feat. "Fourteen-year-old Bharath Subramaniyam becomes the 73rd Grandmaster of the country after completing his final GM Norm and crossing the 2500 rating at Vergani Cup Open in Italy. All India Chess Federation congratulates Bharath for the achievement," AICF wrote on its website.

Bharath’s coach M Shyam Sundar, himself a Grandmaster, tweeted: “Congratulations Bharath for becoming the latest GM of India!! Let’s focus on new goals in this new year!!”

Meanwhile, another Indian Grandmaster MR Lalith Babu also took part in the Vergani Cup Open and won the title on Sunday in Italy. Lalith seeded 9th in the tournament, scored seventh points out of a possible 9, and tied for the pole position along with second seed GM Niemann Hans Moke of the USA, Vitaliy Bernadskiy of Ukraine, and Nurgyul Salimova of Bulgaria.

But a better tie break score helped Lalith to finish as champion while Moke finished as the first runner-up. Top seed Anton Korobov of Ukraine finished at fifth position.

Bharath finished with six wins and one draw while losing two games, against Korobov and Lalith Babu. He achieved his first GM norm after finishing 11th at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow in February 2020. He secured the second norm in October 2021 after coming fourth in the Junior Roundtable Under 21 tournament in Bulgaria with 6.5 points.

Bharath had become an International Master at the age of 11 years and 8 months in 2019.

With IANS inputs