Who is M Pranesh, the Indian teen who clinched chess Grandmaster title? His coach reveals shocking details

M Pranesh from Tamil Nadu recently became India’s 79th chess Grandmaster, who won the title in the Rilton Cup. A player must obtain three GM norms and have a live rating of 2,500 Elo points to become a GM. The 16-year-old Indian seeded 22nd, swept the field in Stockholm, winning eight games and finishing a full point ahead of IM Kaan Kucuksari (Sweden) and GM Nikita Meshkovs (Latvia) as the tournament came to a close late Thursday. With 8 points in hand, M Pranesh grabbed the top spot in the tournament which saw participation from a total of 136 players from 29 nations.

M Pranesh's family details

M Pranesh's coach RB Ramesh has revealed shocking details about the teen Indian chess player on his Twitter account. In a series of tweets, RB Ramesh gave details about his family background. RB Ramesh tweeted that M Pranesh hails from a very poor family of Tamil Nadu, who has faced challenges and made sacrifices to reach this milestone. According to his coach, M Pranesh's mother works in an Anganwadi at Karaikudi and serves poor children. In another tweet, the coach mentioned that until becoming an International master, M Pranesh didn't even have access to a laptop for his chess preparation. He wrote, "To every child out there, no matter where fate has landed you, don't despair, believe in yourself, and work hard, the same fate will reward you and lift you up."

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2024 FIDE Candidate

With his remarkable success, M Pranesh is now one step closer to becoming the 2024 FIDE candidate. Pranesh is now the early leader of the FIDE Circuit, having earned 6.8 circuit points for this victory. The player with the most points at the end of the year is eligible for the 2024 FIDE Candidates. The All India Chess Federation took to Twitter to praise the 16-year-old Indian by writing, “Congratulations to Pranesh M for winning the Rilton Cup at Stockholm, the first tournament of the FIDE Circuit and also becoming the 79th Grandmaster of the country!"

Who is M Pranesh’s coach?

RB Ramesh, a well-known coach, is M Pranesh’s trainer. RB Ramesh is a chess grandmaster from Chennai who won the British Championship in 2002 and the Commonwealth Championship in 2007. WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy is his wife. They are the country's first Grandmaster couple. In 2008, he founded Chess Gurukul, Chess Academy in Chennai to train young players. Since then, Chess Gurukul has produced many international chess champions from India, including Bharath Subramaniyam, who at the age of 11 years and 8 months became an International master in 2019. After M Pranesh clinched the Grandmaster title, RB Ramesh said, “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.”

Previous Grandmasters from India

On the last day of the last year, India got its 78th Chess Grandmaster in 19-year-old Koustav Chatterjee. The Indian clinched the title in MPL 59th National Senior Chess Championship in New Delhi on 31st December. Koustav earned his first GM-norm in October 2021 at the Sheikh Russel GM 2021 in Bangladesh. The teenager then took his Class 12 board exams in the first half of 2022. During these exam times, he continued to play chess. He even took part in a tournament. In November of the following year, the teenager achieved his second GM norm at the Asian Continental Championship 2022. In the August FIDE rating list, he surpassed the 2500-point benchmark.