Raja Rithvik becomes India’s 70th GM maestro Anand congratulates him

PTI, Sep 21, 2021, 9:41 AM IST

Chennai: R Raja Rithvik has become India’s 70th and latest chess Grandmaster, achieving his third and final norm at a recent event in Hungary.

Former world champion and Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand praised the 17-year old Warangal native for entering the GM club.

“Congrats to Raja Ritvik for becoming India’s 70th Grand Master! A very proud moment to see our numbers rise,” Anand, the country’s first ever GM, said in a tweet on Monday.

The All India Chess Federation congratulated Raja Rithvik for becoming a Grandmaster.

Rithvik, who earned his first GM norm in 2019, achieved his second and third norms in less than a month

After gaining the second norm in the Skalica Open, the Indian won the third norm in the First Saturday GM tournament to fulfil the GM title requirements.

He touched the magical 2500 Elo mark in the fourth round of the tournament after beating Vaclav Finek.

Pune’s Harshit Raja had become India’s 69th GM last month.