Alan-Safar Ramoutar closer to being Caribbean's youngest chess grandmaster

European-based Trinidad and Tobago chess player Alan-Safar Ramoutar is 20 points away from becoming the Caribbean’s youngest chess grandmaster.

On Sunday, Ramoutar scored seven and a half points out of nine to win the GM ASK Mix chess tournament in Serbia. This victory saw him secure a fourth grandmaster norm – a strong performance at a high-level tournament.

Before this event, he also won the GM ASK 12 chess tournament in Arandjelovac, Serbia with eight out of ten points. There, he earned his third necessary grandmaster norm and became eligible for the grandmaster title.

A statement issued by the TT Chess Association said, “Alan-Safar's performance in these two recent tournaments enabled him to increase his FIDE (International Chess Federation) rating to 2,480, which is 20 points away from the requirement to become a grandmaster and his becoming the Caribbean’s youngest chess grandmaster, and the only chess grandmaster in the English speaking Caribbean.”

With his new FIDE rating, Ramoutar is now ranked the 59th highest rated junior (Under-20) in the world.

Having secured all his grandmaster norms, he now only has to reach a rating of 2,500 to be awarded the grandmaster title.

He player plans to stay in Europe until the end of August, and will continue competing to gain the required points for his grandmaster title, as well as working on his second chess training course with Chessable.

Chessable, based in Barcelona and London, is part of the Play Magnus Group, a company founded by world chess champion Magnus Carlsen to build chess services.