Debashis Das made Odisha proud by becoming the first chess Grandmaster of the state and 34th of the country on Friday. He achieved the coveted title by crossing the 2500 Elo rating, defeating Anirudha Deshpande in the eight round of the 51st National Challengers Championship at Bhopal (MP).
The 21-year-old IM, who started as the defending champion with a rating of 2497, shares the second spot with GMs MR Lalith Babu and SP Sethuraman (both PSPB). The trio with 6.5 points apiece is trailing joint-leaders MS Thejkumar and Akshat Khamparia (both Railways) by half-a-point.
“The long-awaited dream has finally come true. Odisha can now boast of having a chess Grandmaster, the coveted title that only 33 others in our country of 1.2 billion people have achieved till date. The entire Odisha is proud of Debashis,” said All Odisha Chess Association secretary Vivek Tibarewal, who announced a cash prize of `50,000 for the new GM.
“Hard work, perseverance and dedication has finally borne fruit for Kanha (Debashis’ nickname). We are so happy for him,” said the GM’s father Dillip Kumar Das.
A plus-three second year science student of Gobindpur College, Debashis secured his third and final Grandmaster norm in the A category of the Czech Open Grandmaster Tournament at Pardubice (Czech Republic) earlier this year on July 27. He had claimed his first GM norm in the World Junior Championship at Athens in 2012.