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Teenage chess sensation Aditya Mittal has become India’s 77th Grandmaster (GM). The 16-year-old achieved his title during the sixth round of the El Llobregat Open Chess Tournament in Spain. The Mumbai native is also the fifth Indian to take home the GM title in 2022 after Bharath Subramaniyam, Rahul Srivatshav, Pranav V, and Pranav Anand.


With this achievement, Aditya Mittal is now the 11th Maharashtrian to achieve the GM tag. The other Grand Masters from Maharashtra are Praveen Thipsay, Abhijit Kunte, Vidit Gujrathi, Akshyaraj Kore, Swapnil Dhopade, Shardul Gagare, Abhimanyu Puranik, Raunak Sadhwani and Harshit Raja.


Mittal won his first GM-norm at Serbia Masters 2021. Five months later, he earned his second GM-norm at the 2nd El Llobregat Open 2021. The 16-year-old clinched his third and final norm at Serbia Masters 2022. In the sixth round of the 3rd El Llobregat Open 2022, he drew against Spain’s no.1 GM Francisco Vallejo Pons to hit the 2500 ratings and become India's newest Grandmaster. 


Aditya Mittal has been nearing the 2500 rating for quite some time over the last few months. However, he finally managed to clinch the required two days back. He is currently one of the five leaders of the tournament.  


The 16-year-old Aditya Mittal has earned a lot of medals in his career which includes various National and Asian events. Here are a few of his top achievements:


• Gold in Asian Youth Under-8 Open Rapid in 2014.


• Silver in Asian Youth Under-10 Open in 2015.


• Silver in Asian Youth Under-16 Open in 2016.


• Bronze in Asian Youth Under-8 Open in 2014.


• Bronze in Asian Youth Under-10 Open in 2016.


• Bronze in Asian Schools Under-7 Open in 2012.


• Bronze in National Under-9 Boys in 2015.


• Bronze in National Schools Under-9 Open in 2015.