Chess: Koustav Chatterjee becomes India's 78th Grandmaster

India's chess Grandmaster (GMs) count continues to rise in the new year, as a 19-year-old Koustav Chatterjee attained his final norm to become India's 78th GM.

Chatterjee achieved his feat during the 59th National Chess Championships in Delhi on Saturday when he held GM Mitrabha Guha to a draw.

Having secured his first GM norm back in October 2021, Chatterjee has been on a constant rise over the past year. In fact, he crossed the mandatory rating mark of 2500 in August last year.

Hailing from Kolkata, Koustav Chatterjee becomes the 10th GM from the state of West Bengal after Dibyendu Barua, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Sandipan Chanda, Neelotpal Das, Deep Sengupta, Saptarshi Chowdhury, Diptayan Ghosh, Saptarshi Roy, and Mitrabha Guha.