I need to rest: Kunte

Over the board, however, Kunte cannot afford to rest. He has two more games remaining and if he scores 1.5 points from these games, it would go a long way in reducing his task for the GM title. At present, he is assured only of a nine-round Swiss norm, which will become a coveted round robin norm of 11 games if he scores 7.5 points. A player needs to complete only 24 games ifhe has a round robin norm and 30 games if the norms are all Swiss. In any case, Kunte has to make one more norm to become India’s third Grandmaster but if the round robin norm is there he has to fulfill only minimum requirements next time.

Kunte, who played in the Linares and Ubeda Open tournaments in January and February, missed GM norms by half a point. But the experience of playing top GMs there has definitely stood him in good stead. “I have played 21 GMs in the last two and half months,” recollected Kunte. He has had creditable success in the GM group, scoring seven wins, seven draws and seven losses. Four of his wins have been in Kozhikode in the last one week.

Kunte had a tough learning process in the last two years. Ever since he lost badly in his debut in National A at Kasargod two years ago, Kunte has been on the way to the top. Kunte’s father, Prakash Kunte, has been one of the sponsors of this tournament, which had no main sponsor. Luckily for the organisers institutions like Life InsuranceCorporation and Goodricke came to the rescue and chipped in with contributions.