Rohtak youth first from state to get chess grandmaster title
CHANDIGARH: Himanshu Sharma, 34, a resident of Rohtak has become first chess player from the state to have achieved the Grandmaster (GM) title.
Finishing with 2502 Elo Rating Points (marks), he won the said title at the 1st Sardar Prakash Singh Memorial FIDE (world chess federation) rated chess championships 2017 in Sonepat last month in which he secured victory in the first six games continuously and crossed the barrier of 2,500 rating points.
Additional chief secretary (sports) K K Khandelwal, when contacted for comments on Himanshu’s achievement, said that chief minister Manohar Lal Kattar had announced to soon honour Himanshu with a cash award of ₹5 lakh.
Son of a timber merchant of Rohtak, Himanshu, who has been playing chess for the past 22 years, got a job of a clerk in South Western Railways in 2012 on the basis of achievements in the said game till then. “Whatever I have achieved is because of the guidance of my father Virender Lal Sharma, who is also a chess champion of Haryana, and my mother Krishna Sharma,” he said. While Himanshu is the 47th player in the country to have won the grandmaster title, he was also the first to become an International Master in the game in 2006 from Haryana.
With a rating among top players in country, his current international Live Fide rating is 2,498 whereas the highest international Live Fide rating in 2502. In 2013 and 2014, he finished third twice in the national cities team chess championship.