After a just a day of Vidit gujrathi’s success
who became the 4 th Indian to cross 2700 in the FIDE elo list.
There we have one more superior news from the state of
Maharashtra. ABHIMANYU PURANIK from pune engraved his
name as the 49 th chess grandmaster of our versatile nation
INDIA. This 17 year old teen made his final GM norm with a
round to spare at the Abu Dhabi Masters 2017 and also
crossed 2500 Elo. The grandmaster of chess are raining in
India and we are just one away from reaching 50 th GM’s
mark!!!
These star is born on 11 th Feb 2000 and has
completed 17 years,6 months and 11 days on earth. Within
less span of time he has achieved the most coveted title in the
chess world. The chess hero from pune won laurels at a very
young age.
Although Abhimanyu played many interesting
games in the tournament, we think his fourth round win
against Gu Xiaobing is perhaps the most representative of
his style of play. Pieces are just randomly scattered all
over the board, and the young Indian is able to find his way
in the complex position. That's Abhimanyu's true strength
Puranik made his maiden GM norm at the Zalakaros Open
in Hungary in 2016, the second one at the same
tournament in 2017 and the third one at the Abu Dhabi
Open 2017. Abhimanyu joins the group of players Aravindh
Chithambaram and Karthikeyan Murali as the young
grandmasters who will make it big in the years to come. In
fact Aravindh and Karthikeyan are born in 1999 and
Abhimanyu in 2000. He is not the youngest GM in India at
this very moment because of Aryan Chopra who is born in
2001.
Down the memory lane:
Abhimanyu started playing chess when he was only five
and a half years old, and had been passionate about the
game right from the start. He was a student of Symbiosis
primary school and also liked playing football. He started
receiving coaching from International Master
Chandrashekhar Gokhale. Chandrashekhar emphasized
physical exercises for Abhimanyu to develop stamina to sit
through four to six hours of play without losing
concentration. The boy achieved international rating at the
age of 8 years.
Abhimanyu’s style of play caught the eye of Raghunandan
Gokhale, eminent coach and winner of the ‘Dronacharya
Award’, at a workshop arranged by Chandrashekhar
Gokhale for his students. He appealed to Abhimanyu’s
parents to send him to Greece. Samir and Sneha Puranik,
Abhimanyu's parents, put up their own funds and endured
visa hassles to accomplish their task and Abhimanyu
justified everyone's faith in him by besting powerful
players and winning the gold at the World School Chess
Championship-2007 in under-7 section by scoring 9.0/9!
The World Chess Organization offered him the title
'Candidate Master' after he won the bronze medal at the
World Youth under-10 in 2010.
Abhimanyu became an IM in 2015 after he scored three IM
norms and crossed the rating barrier of 2400. His first IM
norm came at the age of just 12 years when he put up a
creditable performance at the Prague Open in 2012. He had
to wait for nearly three years for his next two norms but he
achieved them in a hurry at the Mumbai and Kolkata Open
in 2015.
The wait of three years for achieving the next two norms
for the IM title were not in vain. Abhimanyu's level had
already reached the next stage and he immediately scored
his first GM norm at the Zalakaros Open in 2016 in
Hungary.
Abhimanyu kept gaining rating points and made his
second and third norms in Zalakaros 2017 and Abu Dhabi
2017 to become India's 49th grandmaster!
For many, winning the GM title signals the biggest
achievement in their chess careers. For talents like
Abhimanyu Puranik, this is just a stepping stone in the
direction of becoming a world class player. We wish him
all the best in his journey of reaching the next level - the
2600 mark!
