India's youngest grandmaster returns

Kolkata:

While Kolkata celebrated East Bengal's victory in the ASEAN Cup in Jakarta, across the globe in Spain, another Kolkatan was making it to the history books. Twenty-year-old Sandipan Chanda became India's youngest Grand Master after obtaining the elusive third GM norm at a tournament in Spain earlier this month. "It feels great. My name was forwarded in 2001 for the Grand Master title and two and a half years later I have received it," said Chanda. The walls of the colony in Tollygunje where Sandipan stays speak of his success story and the happiness is writ large on his family's face as they celebrated his homecoming. Sandipan is now aiming at improving his rating. "More sponsors will mean more tournaments where we players can prove ourselves," he said. With India's juniors winning the Asian Cin Colombo earlier this month and Vishwananthan Anand winning a few tournaments already, its turning out to be another good year for Indian chess.