13-year-old Raunak Sadhwani became India’s 65th Chess Grandmaster at the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss 2019.
Hailing from Nagpur, Sadhwani beat Russian GM Alexander Motylev to become a grandmaster in 13 years, 9 months, 28 days. He faced Grandmasters in all 9 rounds, winning two games and drawing six and getting a rank of 2438.
Trained under former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, Sadhwani nearly beat Vishwanathan Anand at an international competition in 2018. He told TOI,
“Kramnik sir’s training has been a life-changing thing for me. I have implemented whatever he taught in my games (at the Isle of Man). He has made me psychologically very strong and taken my game to an altogether different level.”
He joins other young Indian GMs including Gukesh D (13) and R Praggnanandhaa (14).
