Deepan poised to obtain final GM norm

Visakhapatnam, Apr 9 (UNI)International Master J Deepan Chakkaravarthy, who emerged the joint leader in the 43rd National A championship here, is also set to obtain his third and final grand master norm tomorrow.

All he needs to do to get it is to play his opponent and co-leader SS Ganguly, irrespective of the result. He has already made the seven points required for the ten game GM norm. He has also scored a Tournament Performance Rating (TPR) of 2600+, which is one of the other requistes of obtaining the GM norm.

The Chief Arbiter of the championship, Mr N Anantharam confirmed that Deepan will obtain the GM norm.

Deepan made his first GM norm in the Asian Junior championship in Sri Lanka in 2002 when he won the Gold and his second norm in the ONGC International Cup held at Hyderabad in February, 2002. Three grand master Norms are required to achieve the title of Grand Master in Chess.

Apart from the Norms, a player has to improve his FIDE rating to 2500. Deepan's current Rating is 2428 and is gaining rating points in both the ONGC cup and the current National Championships.

The Men's championship is a 21 player league event and there are 12 more rounds left to be played untill April 18.

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