Arjun Kalyan became the country’s 68th Grandmaster in the ongoing GM round robin “Rujna Zora-3 2021” tournament at Arandjelovac in Serbia.
The 18-year-old B. Com. student defeated GM Kosic Dragan of Montenegro in the fifth round to achieve the feat.
“I was 2477 before leaving for Serbia and needed 23 points to become a GM. I am happy that I did that beating Kosic,” Arjun told The Hindu on Wednesday.
Arjun said that he was relieved to achieve the feat as he had come close to becoming a GM quite a few times earlier.
In fact, in the GM round robin “Rujna Zora-2” last week, Arjun needed a win to become a GM, but he missed it. “Now I just want to keep improving my game and my ratings,” he said.