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BREAKING NEWS: Rathanvel V S becomes India's 99th Grandmaster! Congratulations to Rathanvel V S on becoming India's 99th GM. He is born in 2001 and hails from the city of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. He crossed the Elo of 2500 at the 3rd Guwahati Smart City International Open FIDE Rating Chess Tournament 2026. This also makes it a very memorable moment for the state of Assam as India's 99th GM was created in their tournament. Rathanvel's journey has been one of the most remarkable in recent years. While a player needs 3 GM norms to become a Grandmaster, Rathanvel amassed an incredible 5 GM norms before finally completing the title. Rathanvel scored his first GM norm at the First Saturday tournament in Hungary in September 2021. The second followed immediately in the same month at the Vezerkepzo GM-MIX. The third GM norm followed in 2022. He had already fulfilled the norm requirement back in 2022. What followed was a long and testing battle with the rating barrier. For nearly four years, he remained one of the strongest International Masters in India and the world, repeatedly coming agonizingly close to the magical 2500 mark. Many players would have been disheartened. Rathanvel kept fighting. Tournament after tournament, country after country, he continued to prove that he possessed Grandmaster strength. His perseverance has finally been rewarded. As on 1st of July he was rated 2492 when he decided to play 2 rating tournaments in India in the state of Assam. He had a unique approach towards this where he skipped a few rounds playing against players below the Elo of 1600. He won 10 games in a row and gained those coveted 8 Elo points and reached 2500 Elo. Here are some of Rathanvel's excellent achievements: 1. Completed 4 IM Norms and crossed 2400 rating during 2019 Abu Dhabi Masters 2. Highest rated Classical win against Super GM Le Quang Liem ( rated 2727) 3. Classical draws against top players like Abdusattorov Nodirbek (twice) , Artemiev Vladislav , Sindarov Javokhir and Gukesh. 4. World Youth U-10 Bronze Medallist , 2011 held at Rio De Janeiro, Brazil 5. Represented Tamilnadu Thrice in SGFI ( School Games Federation of India) and won Gold (twice) and Silver. 6. Multiple age category Tamilnadu state chess champion ( U-9,13,19) India now has its 99th Grandmaster - a milestone that also brings the country one step closer to the historic 100th GM. Congratulations, GM Rathanvel V S! We wish you many more successes in the years to come. A special thanks to Ravikant Tiwari for sending us some of the photos from the current tournament in Assam where Rathanvel became a GM. Read more: chessbase.in/news/rathanvel-…