Chess player Sayantan Das on Sunday became India’s 81st and Bengal’s 11th Grandmaster. The 26-year-old won the Cannes Open with a score of 7.5 out of a maximum of nine points.

Das, who already had four GM norms, needed 2500 Elo rating points to become the Grandmaster. The triumph at Cannes earned him his fifth norm and the push he needed.

“Finally I have fulfilled my target,” Das told The Telegraph from Cannes on Sunday evening. “I am happy. I was waiting for too long. The monkey is finally off my back,” he added.

Diptayan Ghosh, another city-based GM and his roommate in Cannes, came fourth.

A product of The Telegraph Schools’ Chess, Das learnt his game at the Alekhine Chess Club. He was the world U-12 champion in 2008.

A Metro Railway employee, Das said he saves money from his salary to pursue chess. “That’s the only option since I do not have a sponsor.”

An alumnus of Scottish Church College, Das had won the under-15, under-17 and under-19 national championships in 2013.