M Pranesh became India’s 79th Chess Grandmaster, achieved top position among 136 players

M Pranesh has won the Rilton Cup title. With this, he crossed 2500 rating points to become India’s 79th Chess Grandmaster. To become a Grandmaster, one must have an Elo rating of 2500. 22nd seed Pranesh won eight games to stay one point ahead of Sweden’s IM Kan Kukuksaari and Latvia’s GM Nikita Meshkovs. Kaustav Chatterjee recently became India’s 78th Grandmaster from Tamil Nadu’s Pranesh.

The 22nd seeded Indian made a clean sweep in Stockholm. He won eight games and finished a full point ahead of IM Kan Kukuksaari (Sweden) and GM Nikita Meshkovs (Latvia). They are on top of the points table with eight points.

Tamil Nadu player Pranesh topped the tournament in which 136 players from 29 federations participated. R Raja Rithvik finished eighth with six points. Pranesh is now on top of the FIDE circuit with 6.8 circuit points. The player who scores the most points by the end of the year qualifies for the 2024 FIDE candidates.

These players are trained by coach RB Ramesh. He said, “Pranesh is a very practical player. Hard work, great talent… His openings are not that great, but his middle and end game is brilliant.”

The All India Chess Federation congratulated Pranesh and wrote on their Twitter page “Congratulations to Pranesh M for winning the Rilton Cup in Stockholm, the first tournament on the FIDE circuit and becoming the country’s 79th Grandmaster!”