Prithu Gupta beats Lev Yankelevich to become India’s 64th Grandmaster
Prithu Gupta has become India's 64th Grandmaster, crossing the Elo threshold of 2500 points after beating IM Lev Yankelevich in the fifth round of the Portuguese League 2019. Gupta, who started off late as a nine-year-old, has achieved the title at the age of 15 years, 4 months and 10 days.
When Gupta beat Yankelevich, he joined an elite list of Grandmasters from India, 31 years after the first - Viswanathan Anand in 1988. Indeed, Anand himself shared the good news via his Twitter handle, congratulating the 15-year-old from Delhi.
"And we are complete. 64th GM!! Welcome our newest GM Prithu Gupta!," Anand posted on Twitter.
The youngster immediately replied to it with a thank you note for the inspiring figure that Anand has been to all aspiring chess master.
"Thank you Anand sir .. You have always been the biggest inspiration," tweeted the youngster.
Gupta received his first GM norm at the Gibraltar Masters in 2018, before achieving the second norm at the Biel Masters the same year. He got the final norm at the Porticcio Open early this month and finally achieved the required ELO points with a win over Yankelevich. D Gukesh, who achieved the feat in January this year, holds the record for India's youngest GM, at 12 years, 7 months and 17 days.
However, for boy who started out as late as nine years old, this is quite an incredible feat. He has, so far, won two out of his six encounters, drawing the other four, to earn 3.5 points for his team at the Portugese League
