Tamil Nadu: 16-Yr-Old M Pranesh Dominates Rilton Cup, Becomes India's 79th Grandmaster

The country got its 79th Chess Grandmaster after 16-year-old dynamic chess player Pranesh M dominated the Rilton Cup held in Sweden. He crossed the required 2500 ELO rating to become a Grandmaster (GM) after defeating GM Frode Olav Olsen Urkedal of Norway.

To achieve this feat, the youngster completed his three norms before the Rilton Cup. In general, a Chess player has to meet three norms and cross the rating of 2,500 ELO points to become a GM. He won his first norm in January 2020 while playing at the 18th Delhi GM Open. At the 2021 Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival in Spain, Pranesh completed his second norm to become a GM.

Pranesh's third norm was successfully completed at the Asian Continental Chess Championship in 2022. The dynamic young player won the Rilton cup a year later to meet the required ELO mark, becoming India's 79th and Tamil Nadu's 28th Chess GM.

According to officials, he is now an early leader of the FIDE Circuit with 6.8 points which he secured with his recent victory. Among the list of chess players, those with the most points by the end of 2023 will qualify for the FIDE Candidates 2024.

Game Experts Praise Pranesh

Pranesh's coach, RB Ramesh, a renowned chess professional, 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," reported India Today.

The all-time favourite, Viswanathan Anand, also congratulated the dynamic talent for achieving this milestone at such a young age. He took to Twitter and wrote, "Congratulations to GM Pranesh on an excellent performance. He won with an incredible score. We have added three grandmasters in quick succession. A special mention to Koustav Chatterjee for winning the GM title at the National Chess championship."

The All India Chess Federation also congratulated the 16-year-old boy by mentioning, "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!"

The exceptional feat by Pranesh comes days after 19-year-old Koustav Chatterjee became the country's 78th and West Bengal's 10th GM after dominating the National Senior Chess Championship. Such achievements by young talents will take India to a global stage where the country can compete with world-class players.

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