Abhijeet Gupta defeated compatriot B Adhiban in the ninth and penultimate round of the 12th Balaguer International Open chess tournament and achieved his third and final Grandmaster norm.
The Bhilwara-based youngster was lucky in the ninth round as Adhiban could not bank on his advantageous position. But earlier in the event Abhijeet had played some fine games including his victory over GM Rashad Babaev of Azerbaijan.
Abhijeet will now have to take his rating to 2500 levels to apply for the GM title. His first norm was achieved last year at Andorra while the second came earlier this year in New Delhi during the Parsvnath International Chess tournament.
It has turned out to be norms galore for the Indians as Soumya Swaminathan also gained an IM norm along with a WGM norm. Arun Karthik also bagged an IM norm while Padmini Rout got an International Women Master norm to her credit. For Soumya, this tour has been really rewarding as she will return home a WIM.