International Master (IM) Anurag Mhamal, promoted by Dempo entity, Devashri Real Estate Developers, achieved his third and final Grand Master (GM) norm at the just concluded Pardubice Czech Open Grand Master Chess Tournament held at Pardubice, the Czech Republic, becoming thereby the first Goan player to in the GM-elect level. Anurag scored 6 points out of 9 rounds and with a performance rating of 2603, achieved the ultimate norm to qualify for the GM title. Anurag started off as the 90th seed only to finish 20th in the final standings, thereby gaining 50 Elo points from the tournament. He will now attain an ELO rating of 2452, needing only 48 Elo points so as to officially get the GM title certificate from FIDE ( World Chess Federation).
In the course of the competition, the Dempo goodwill ambassador defeated GM Nabaty Tamir ( 2622) of Israel, GM Gavrilov Alexei ( 2465) of Russia, IM Gurevich Daniel of the USA, IM Yuffa Daniil of Russia, while drawing with IM Ladva Ottomar of Estonia and IM Abhimanyu Puranik of India. The last mentioned match was no easy task for Anurag as he had to fight for 128 moves, taking almost six hours to get to a draw in the final round. Anurag earned his 1st GM norm at Tata 50th National Premier Chess Championship held at Kolkata, India in 2012. The 2nd Grand Master norm came at the International tournament at Paris, France in January 2016. He became the first IM of Goa in the year 2013, through several ups and downs, had to wait for over three years for his 2nd and 3rd GM norms. He is the only Goan player to achieve this feat and is the first to ascribe his achievement not just to hard work of 14 years but also to the support of his promoters, the House of Dempo, led by Shri Shrinivas V. Dempo, -Chairman, as also to the encouragement and facilitation of the Goa Chess Association.
With Anurag’s dream of becoming the Grand Master which is the highest title in chess to be fulfilled soon, we at Dempo take pride and joy in our champion and wish him well in his pursuits to scale even greater heights of sporting excellence!
