Chess: India gets 87th Grandmaster after Harikrishnan A Ra achieves his final GM norm in France

CHENNAI: Three months ago, A Ra Harikrishnan promised his coach Shyam Sundar that he would come back from the tournaments in Europe as a Grandmaster. The 23-year-old Chennai boy kept his word as he secured his third and final GM norm at the La Plagne International Chess Festival in France on Friday.

Harikrishnan is the 87th Indian GM, and 32nd from Tamil Nadu.The first breakthrough for Harikrishnan came in July 2023 at the Biel International Chess Festival in Switzerland, where he earned his first norm. He added a second at the Lince Andujar Open in Spain in June. As a seven-year-old, Harikrishnan earned his FIDE rating, the youngest Indian to do so at that time. But it wasn’t until 2018 that he earned the International Master title.

Seven years later, he finally crossed the next big milestone.“I took up chess when I was five, after I saw my brother Venkata Krishnan playing. He was a state-level player. After bagging the IM title, I was stuck there for a while. It was only in 2022 that I started playing seriously again and took part in back-to-back tournaments. It was also the year I started training with my coach Shyam sir , and we worked on a lot of stuff,” said Harikrishnan, whose mother, Renga Nachiar, is an international arbiter.

One would think that with the GM title in hand, Harikrishnan would be on the next flight home, just as he had promised. But he isn’t done yet. The hunger now is for rating points and eventually, a 2600 rating.“I was a little more adamant this time that I really wanted to become a GM, but that wasn’t the entire goal. I’m still aiming for more. I’ve already planned three more tournaments — in Morocco, Spain and Portugal — and I’d like to reach a rating of 2530 or 2540 before I return.

Till I became a GM, it felt like a huge thing. But now that I’ve done it, it doesn’t feel like a lot. Maybe the journey really is more beautiful than the destination,” he said.

Even as the goalpost shifts, coach Shyam knows exactly what makes his student tick and what he needs to keep doing. “We worked on calculations, dynamics and strategies. He also had a good understanding of the Reti opening, which was Vladimir Kramnik’s favourite.

So I made him go deeper into that and play more games using it.“Now, I think openings will play a major role, because what helped him reach 2500 and become a GM might not be enough to go beyond. That’s just the base. Now it’s about working harder on openings and playing, beating more 2650-rated GMs,” said Shyam, who is currently serving as head of delegation for the Indian team at the Women’s World Cup in Georgia.