<p>Akshayraj Kore became the latest Indian chess player to achieve the Grandmaster title after he came up with a career-best rating performance to win the ‘A’ category of Cannes Festival that concluded in the French city.<br /><br /></p>.<p>It turned out to be a grand double for the Pune-based International Master, who registered his fist victory in an international tournament. Just a few days before the tournament, Kore had made his third and final norm at the Rochefort tournament in France and the fourth inconsequential norm here came as an added bonus.<br /><br />Going in to the final round as the sole leader on 6.5 points, Kore defeated International Master Alexander Donchenko of Germany to complete his best ever tournament performance.<br /><br />Kore finished with a rating performance of 2743 points, way above his modest 2455 ELO rating at the start of the tournament.<br /><br />The results at Rochefort and Cannes will take the Indian past the 2500 rating barrier and he is now set to become the next Grandmaster of the country.<br />“This is indeed a flattering result and I am very pleased to have completed the GM title”, said a beaming Kore from Cannes. <br /><br />When asked what he termed as his best game, the Indian conceded that it was a tough choice. “I generally played way above my strength here for some reasons, I guess the win against Safarli Eltaj and Glenn Flear were my two best games in recent times,” he said.<br /><br />With Kore finishing on 7.5 points, the second place was shared by Grandmasters Ruben Felgaer of Argentina and ELtaz who both ended a half point behind.</p>
<p>Akshayraj Kore became the latest Indian chess player to achieve the Grandmaster title after he came up with a career-best rating performance to win the ‘A’ category of Cannes Festival that concluded in the French city.<br /><br /></p>.<p>It turned out to be a grand double for the Pune-based International Master, who registered his fist victory in an international tournament. Just a few days before the tournament, Kore had made his third and final norm at the Rochefort tournament in France and the fourth inconsequential norm here came as an added bonus.<br /><br />Going in to the final round as the sole leader on 6.5 points, Kore defeated International Master Alexander Donchenko of Germany to complete his best ever tournament performance.<br /><br />Kore finished with a rating performance of 2743 points, way above his modest 2455 ELO rating at the start of the tournament.<br /><br />The results at Rochefort and Cannes will take the Indian past the 2500 rating barrier and he is now set to become the next Grandmaster of the country.<br />“This is indeed a flattering result and I am very pleased to have completed the GM title”, said a beaming Kore from Cannes. <br /><br />When asked what he termed as his best game, the Indian conceded that it was a tough choice. “I generally played way above my strength here for some reasons, I guess the win against Safarli Eltaj and Glenn Flear were my two best games in recent times,” he said.<br /><br />With Kore finishing on 7.5 points, the second place was shared by Grandmasters Ruben Felgaer of Argentina and ELtaz who both ended a half point behind.</p>