Leon Mendonca becomes India’s 67th Grandmaster!

New Delhi, Jan 1: After winning the third and final norm at a tournament in Italy, Goa’s 14-year-old Leon Mendonca has become India’s 67th chess Grandmaster. With this win, he has also achieved the feat at 14 years, 9 months, and 17 days and become the second Grandmaster from Goa.

 

The player achieved his first Grandmaster norm at the Rigo Chess Grandmaster Round Robin in October while the second came at the 1st Saturday event in Budapest in November and the final one at the Vergani Cup in Italy. At the Vergani Cup in Bassano del Grappa, he finished second with 6.5 points behind Ukraine’s Vitaliy Bernadskiy (7 pts).

 

Mendonca and his father Lyndon were stranded in Europe in March in the wake of the coronavirus-enforced lockdown and travel restrictions. Due to this, they took part in several tournaments with an aim of achieving the Grandmaster title. In the nine months from March to December, Mendonca played in 16 tournaments and, from an ELO rating of 2452 points, improved to 2544.

 

The Goa youngster had taken part in a camp organized by Microsense in Chennai late in 2019 when former world champions Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Gelfand trained a number of Indian players.

 

Mendonca said he was delighted to become a GM and thanked those who supported him through thick and thin. Chennai player G Akash, had in July, become the country’s 66th Grandmaster.