Aravindh Chithambaram (born 11 September 1999) is an Indian chess grandmaster. A prodigy who beat four grandmasters to win a major open tournament at fourteen, he spent several years in the shadow of younger Indian stars before a breakthrough in 2024 and 2025, when he won the Chennai Grand Masters and the Prague Masters, crossed a rating of 2700 and entered the world’s top fifteen.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Aravindh Chithambaram Veerappan |
| Born | 11 September 1999, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Age | 27 |
| Sport | Chess |
| Title | Grandmaster (2015) |
| Coach | R. B. Ramesh |
| Major wins | Chennai Grand Masters (2024); Prague Masters (2025) |
| National titles | Indian champion (2018, 2019) |
Early Life
Aravindh was born in Thirunagar, a suburb of Madurai. His father died when he was three, and he was brought up by his mother, Deivanai, who worked as an insurance agent to support the family. He preferred cricket as a small boy; his grandfather taught him chess at seven so that he would stay indoors. When his talent became clear his mother moved with him to Chennai so that he could train at Chess Gurukul, the academy of the grandmaster R. B. Ramesh, who has coached him ever since and also trained R. Praggnanandhaa.
Career
He won national titles in the under-19 category while still much younger. In 2013, as a fourteen-year-old without an international title, he won the Chennai Grandmaster Open, held alongside the world championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen, defeating four grandmasters. He became an International Master in 2014 and a grandmaster in 2015.
He won the Indian national championship in 2018 and again in 2019. In 2019 he held the national classical, rapid and blitz titles together, a rare triple. His progress then slowed, and for some years he played mostly in open tournaments while contemporaries such as D. Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi moved into the world elite.
In November 2024 he played his first elite round-robin, the Chennai Grand Masters, and won it after a tie-break against Levon Aronian and Arjun Erigaisi. The result took his rating past 2700. In March 2025 he won the Masters section of the Prague Chess Festival with six points from nine games, finishing ahead of Praggnanandhaa and Wei Yi, with a performance rating above 2800. He had now won both top-level tournaments he had entered, and he rose to fourteenth in the world. He won another strong event in Armenia later that year and returned to Prague as defending champion in 2026.
Playing Style
Ramesh has described him as one of the most naturally gifted players he has coached, with an unusual feel for unbalanced positions. Aravindh is known for original opening choices, for creative and sometimes risky play, and for a relaxed manner at the board.
Achievements
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Aravindh Chithambaram born?
Aravindh Chithambaram was born on 11 September 1999 in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India and is 27 years old.
Featured image: Aravindh Chithambaram at the London Chess Classic, December 2016. Photo by Wolfgang Jekel, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
