Prithu Gupta

Prithu Gupta is an Indian chess grandmaster from Gurgaon. He reached this milestone in July 2019, at the age of 15 years and 4 months, 31 years after Viswanathan Anand became India's first GM. He began playing chess when he was nine years old, which is relatively late compared to most other grandmasters.

Prithu Gupta
Prithu Gupta (right) with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2020
CountryIndia
Born (2004-03-08) March 8, 2004
TitleGrandmaster (2019)
FIDE rating2444 (October 2023)
Peak rating2493 (August 2019)

Career

Beginning with an Elo rating of 1,187 in October 2013,[1] Prithu went past 2,500 in less than six years of competition despite playing in a lesser number of tournaments, focusing instead on the top-ranking events, which featured the best players.[2]

Prithu achieved his maiden International Master (IM) norm[3] at the Silver Lake Open in Silver Lake, Veliko Gradište, Serbia, in July 2017, and his second IM norm came a month later at the Golden Prague Chess Festival in the Czech Republic, where he won seven out of his nine matches in the round-robin event, finishing top and crossing 2,300 Elo rating points in the process.

In January 2018 at the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters,[4] Prithu won the title of International Master and achieved his first Grandmaster (GM) norm.[5] Then, following a tied-4th finish at the 7th Llucmajor Open in Palma da Mallorca,[6] Prithu obtained his second GM norm[7] at the Biel International Chess Festival in Switzerland, in July 2018.

Also in July 2018, Prithu earned top honours in the team event of the Portuguese League in Porto, and in October of the same year, he was judged the second-best youngster in the under-18 category at the Isle of Man Masters in the UK.

In July 2019, at age 15, and three months after finishing runner-up amongst juniors at the Reykjavik Open (under-18 category), Prithu secured his third GM norm with a round to spare at the Porticcio Open in Corsica, where he finished ninth. A week later during the Portuguese League (first division), he became India’s 64th Grandmaster[8] – after his win in the fifth round against German IM Lev Yankelevich, Prithu’s Elo rating crossed 2,500.

For his achievements, and for reaching that all-important third GM norm and moving past 2,500 Elo points to confirm his Grandmaster status, Prithu was honoured with the state award for outstanding sportspersons by the government of Haryana, his home state, in August 2019, and was a recipient of the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar award in January 2020. The Rashtriya Bal Puraskar[9] is given to Indians under the age of 18 for exceptional efforts in different fields, including sport.

Achievements
  • 2017: 1st IM norm, Silver Lake Open, Serbia
  • 2017: 1st position, Golden Prague Chess Festival
  • 2017: 2nd IM norm, Golden Prague Chess Festival
  • 2018: Secured third IM norm and won title of International Master, Tradewise Gibraltar Masters, Gibraltar
  • 2018: 1st GM norm, Tradewise Gibraltar Masters, Gibraltar
  • 2018: 2nd GM norm, Biel International Chess Festival, Biel, Switzerland
  • 2018: 1st position, team event, Portuguese Team Championship
  • 2019: Achieved third and final GM norm, Porticcio Open, Corsica
  • 2019: Became India’s 64th Grandmaster, Portuguese League, Evora, Portugal
  • 2020: Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 

References
  1. "From 1187 to 2219 in just three years - ChessBase India". www.chessbase.in. 6 January 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  2. "Prithu Gupta - FIDE Ratings - International Chess Federation". 2 April 2018.
  3. "13-year-old Prithu Gupta makes his maiden IM norm - ChessBase India". www.chessbase.in. 2 July 2017. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  4. "Gibraltar 2018: Prithu Gupta becomes an IM and scores his maiden GM norm - ChessBase India". www.chessbase.in. 1 February 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  5. "Prithu Gupta- IM title and one GM Norm at the age of 13! - ChessBase India". www.chessbase.in. 10 February 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  6. "Swayams Mishra and Prithu Gupta shine at the Llucmajor Open 2018 in Mallorca - ChessBase India". www.chessbase.in. 24 May 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  7. "Prithu Gupta - the boy who tops in class and scores GM norms with ease! - ChessBase India". www.chessbase.in. 13 August 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  8. Rao, Rakesh (19 July 2019). "Prithu Gupta is the country's 64th GM". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  9. "Ministry of Women and Child Development". nca-wcd.nic.in. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
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