Calcutta: Nineteen-year-old S. Arun Prasad, who completed his third and final GM norm by beating GM Vladimir Dobrov of Russia in Round IX of the Calcutta Open Grandmasters’ Chess tournament on Tuesday, is thankful to statemate V. Saravanan for lending him a laptop for this tournament.

“Just before this meet I had problems with my laptop. It is inconceivable to think of playing in a meet of this stature without a laptop,” said the final year BC student.

Arun doesn’t have a coach. He practises with friends K. Vishweswaran, S. Kidambi and M.R. Venkatesh. “Vishweswaran, who has stopped playing and is now running an academy, gives me a lot of advice,” said Arun.

He had got his first GM norm in Bikaner when he won the Asian Junior meet, in 2004. He followed it up with the second in December 2007 at the Parsvanath meet in Delhi.

Prasad will leave for Norway to take part in a meet on April 6. “Thereafter I plan to play in Mumbai… I hope I can get 2500 Elo rating for the GM title,” he said.

According to the Fide list released on Tuesday, Arun has a rating of 2465. He is likely to gain further 24 Elo points here.