Kolkata chess player Aronyak Ghosh has become India’s 95th grandmaster by securing his final GM norm at the Bangkok Chess Club Open. The 22-year-old international master, rated at 2555 Elo, tied for first place with 7 out of 9 points. This comes four years after his first norm.
Aronyak Ghosh secured his third and final grandmaster norm with a strong performance at the Bangkok Chess Club Open, tying for first place. The Kolkata player was among India’s highest-rated international masters at 2555 Elo.
His first GM norm came in August 2022 at the 23rd Sants International Open in Spain, where he finished fourth and gained 14.9 Elo points. The second norm was at the Annemasse Masters, defeating Karthik Venkataraman and Polina Shuvalova. An Eastern Railway employee, Ghosh’s father, a former player rated 1550 and now an arbiter, sold family property to support his career. His mother is a lawyer.
Ghosh won bronze at the U16 and World Youth championships. Known for experimenting with new openings—even once baffling Hans Niemann—he quoted earlier, “I’m quite bored actually.. the guys come quite prepared…so I say let’s try new openings on the board.” Two months ago, he was in a tense battle with Ethan Vaz for the third norm, which Vaz won. Earlier this year, he won the rapid section of the Nationals unbeaten with 9.5/11 in Ranchi.
