At 14, Leon Mendonca is India’s 67th Grandmaster

PANAJI: At a time when the sporting world has been rocked by Covid-19, Leon Mendonca picked up three norms in the last three months to become India’s 67th Grandmaster and only the second from Goa.
At 14 years, 9 months and 17 days, he becomes the 29th youngest GM in the world. And having spent the last nine months in Europe playing 16 tournaments, the success story, in his father’s words, “is nothing short of a miracle, like water turning into wine”.
Leon Mendonca with his father Lyndon in Italy on Thursday.
“Grandmaster is the highest title in chess, so all our sacrifices have been worth it. We will continue to back Leon because he has shown amazing passion and potential,” his father Lyndon Mendonca told TOI in a telephonic conversation from the northern Italian town of Bassano del Grappa on Thursday.

A marine engineer, Lyndon took a break from his profession to focus on his son’s chess career after he picked up a bronze medal at the U-8 World Youth Chess Championship in 2014.
‘Not easy without family, but chess kept me motivated’
After the medal in Durban, everyone was talking about him. We decided that someone would have to be with him all the time, so one of us had to quit,” said Lyndon, whose wife Anita is a senior doctor at the Goa Medical College’s microbiology department.
Since then, Lyndon has travelled with his son across the world and has remained a pillar of strength. Their determination was tested in March when Covid-19 struck and they were told that their scheduled return to India was not possible due to a national lockdown.
The Mendoncas were forced to stay in Europe. For nine months, they’ve been hopping between Schengen countries in Europe, changing apartments and playing tournaments.
“We still have one more tournament here in Italy before we can return home to Goa,” said Lyndon.
From a rating of 2452, Leon now has an Elo of 2544.
“This was a big challenge for me. I’ve not seen my family and only interacted with them on WhatsApp. Chess was the big motivation for me. I was playing well too,” said Leon, who studied, listened to music and cycled during his free time.
During the nine months that Leon has been away from home, he has missed his mother and sister Beverly. He felt terribly homesick, too. But it was his father who constantly motivated him to keep going.
Leon achieved his first norm at the Rigo Chess GM Round Robin (October 16-24), second at the 1st Saturday Budapest (November 7-17) and the final one the Vergani Cup Italy late on Wednesday.
“I made a confident start here. I had 5.5 points from the first six rounds, so the dream seemed closer. But I lost the next two games and was under pressure in the final game, which I won for my final norm,” said Leon.
Leon had several people to thank for his success.
“The God almighty,” was first on the list before he thanked parents, sister, sponsors — Geno Pharmaceuticals and Microsense Networks — coach Vishnu Prasanna, all previous coaches, media, AICF, Goa Chess Association, Velammal School (Chennai), relatives and well-wishers.
“I have been fortunate some chess greats like Vladimir Kramnik, Boris Gelfand, Judit Polgar and Vishy Anand all played a role in making me the player that I am,” said Leon.