Chess: Tamil Nadu's Pranesh M becomes India's 79th Grandmaster after winning Rilton Cup

India has got its 79th Grandmaster (GM) in a 16-year-old Pranesh M from Tamil Nadu. After beating GM Frode Olav Olsen Urkedal of Norway, Pranesh attained the required 2500 ELO ratings and won the Rilton Cup in the final round to claim the title. With this, he also becomes India’s first Grandmaster of this year. In a competition that had 136 players representing 29 national federations, Pranesh stood first while his compatriot R Raja Rithvik – a Grandmaster himself, finished eighth with six points.

He won his first norm at the 18th Delhi GM Open in January 2020 and claimed his second norm at the Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival in Spain in December 2021. The following year, in November 2022, Pranesh won his third norm at the Asian Continental Chess Championship; and this time in Stockholm, Sweden, after finally crossing the required ELO mark, he became a Grandmaster, India’s 79th in total.

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While he received a lot of praise for his performance on social media, a special mention from India’s first Grandmaster and five-time World Champion, Viswanathan Anand was special. Anand, a Chess veteran not only in India but across world, tweeted, “Congratulations to GM Pranesh on an excellent performance. He won with an incredible score. We have added three grandmasters in quick succession...”

Pranesh’s coach, RB Ramesh also heaped praises on him saying, “Pranesh is a very practical player. Hard working, raw talent… his openings are not that good but his middle-game and end-game skills are quite good.”

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With 6.8 circuit points Pranesh is now the early leader of the FIDE Circuit. For those who qualify for the 2024 FIDE Candidates, they must accumulate the most points by the end of the year.