Ace chess player Sandipan Chanda was officially awarded the Grandmaster title by FIDE, the game's world governing body, at its Executive Board meeting in Halkidiki, Greece.

However, the title is conditional and subject to fulfillment of rating, P T Ummer Koya, one of the FIDE vice-presidents, said on Saturday.

Once Sandipan attains an Elo rating of 2500 he will become the ninth Indian Grandmaster.

The Kolkata player has also been given a direct seeding in the forthcoming National 'A' Chess Championship in Calicut, Kerala, and can now try to be a part of the Indian team for the next Chess Olympiad in 2004.

After Anand became Grandmaster in 1987 there was a gap of five years before Dibyendu Barua became India's next Grandmaster. Pravin Thipsay foloowed after another five years. However, since then, Indian chess players have made their presence felt in a big way at the international level.

The other Indian Grandmasters are: Krishnan Sasikiran, Abhijit Kunte, Pendyala Harikrishna, Koneru Humpy and Surya Shekhar Ganguly.

After an excellent performance that gave him the title victory and his final GM norm in the Parsvnath International Open in Delhi and some Elo rating points in the Tata International Open at Jamshedpur, the Chennai-based Chanda is only a few points adrift of the magical figure of 2500 Elo points.

Speaking from his hotel in Greece, Koya said Ramesh only has to touch 2500 in the FIDE rating list and the Grandmaster title will be his automatically after this recent decision by FIDE.