 "Aravindh Chithambaram has been in good form recently, winning two classical chess titles. Image: Prague Chess festival")
Indian chess Grandmaster Ramachandran Ramesh feels Aravindh Chithambaram, who recently won the Prague Chess Masters 2025 , is the most talented player in India after the five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand.
Ramesh, who runs the Chess Gurukul academy in Chennai and counts top Grandmasters like R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali among his wards, made the claim while reflecting on Chithambaram’s recent blistering form.
Aravindh, who is currently ranked 22nd in the world and has an Elo rating of 2731, won the Chennai Grand Masters last year by beating world No.13 Levon Aronian before going on to edge world No.8 Praggnanandhaa and clinch the prestigious title in Prague last week.
Aravindh Chithambaram is ’now sure about himself’
Ramesh feels the growing confidence in his own ability has led to the sudden rise in Aravindh’s career.
“He is very talented, in fact the most talented after five-time world champion Anand. But he was not believing in himself. Self-doubt was his main stumbling block. Now he is sure about himself,” The Dronacharya Award winner, who coached India to bronze-medal finishes at 2014 and 2022 Olympiads, told Sportstar.
Meanwhile, Aravindh is unsure of what has changed in his game, but he is delighted, nonetheless.
“I don’t know what exactly happened. Something has changed. I am unable to figure it out. Everything has come together for me. Better late than never," he said.
The 25-year-old chess GM from Madurai added that the depth in Indian chess is so good now that they can field multiple teams in the Olympiad.
“We might have two strong teams that will be contenders for Olympiads. We can even go with three teams. That’s the quality of Indian chess,” Aravindh said.
In 2024, both Indian men’s and women’s teams won the Olympiad gold medals for the first time. The winning members were D Gukesh, the current world chess champion, Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigaisi, Pentala Harikrishna, Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh, D Harika, Tania Sachdev and Vantika Agrawal.