Himanshu Sharma of South Western Railway Becomes India’s 47th Chess Grand Master

Hubballi: Himanshu Sharma of South Western Railway became the 47^th Grand Master of India by crossing 2,500 rating during the first Sardar Prakash Singh Memorial Fide Rating Chess Event  held  from April 17 to  April 22, 2017 at Sonipat, Haryana.  He is the fifth person from the Indian Railways and first from the state of Haryana to achieve Grand Master title.  

Himanshu Sharma joined Diesel Loco Shed of Krishnarajapuram of South Western Railway in May 2012 under sports quota as international master in Chess.  He learnt Chess from his father Virender Lal Sharma. His mother Krishna Sharma helped him a lot with guidance essential to achieve the goal. He was an active player of Haryana after winning the Haryana Senior Chess Championship at the age of 13 and progressed thereafter convincingly.  

Sharma participated in 5 continuous International Catalan Chess Circuit 2016. These five highly acclaimed international Chess Championships helped him to get his final grand master norm. He achieved the third and final Grand Master norms in XXIV Open International Ciutat De Montacada in Spain on July 2016.

He played in the first Sardar Prakash Singh Memorial FIDE Rating Chess Event and where, at the 7th match, he secured the maximum rating of his Chess Carrier 2502.20 and thus crossed the barrier of 2500 to become the 47^th Grandmaster of India.