17-year-old R Raja Rithvik becomes India's 70th chess Grand Master
A file photo of R Raja Rithvik.
|(Twitter)
Warangal's 17-year-old prodigy R Raja Rithvik on Monday became India's 70th Grand Master when he achieved the third norm during a tournament in Hungary. Prior to this, he had achieved the first norm in 2019, while the second norm had come in August this year during the he Skalica Open.
R Raja Rithvik has now become India's 70th chess Grandmaster, achieving the third norm during an event in Hungary, according to a report in Indian Express. On this occasion, former World Champ Viswanathan Anand congratulated the 17-year-old prodigy from Warangal.
“Congrats to Raja Ritvik for becoming India’s 70th Grand Master! A very proud moment to see our numbers rise,” Anand wrote in a tweet.
Congrats to Raja Ritvik for becoming India’s 70 th Grand Master! .A very proud moment to see our numbers rise. A big congrats to our Waca mentee @DGukesh for very strong performances. This last week I personally enjoyed playing with the Indian team alongside the young talents.
— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) September 20, 2021
The All India Chess Federation too congratulated Rithvik on the feat.
Congratulations Raja Rithvik : 70th Grandmaster of India pic.twitter.com/axrjjPoXh5
— All India Chess Federation (@aicfchess) September 18, 2021
Rithvik got the first GM norm in 2019, while he cleared the second and third norms in less than a month. The second norm came in the Skalica Open, while the third came in the First Saturday GM tournament, where he touched the 2500 Elo mark in the fourth round, where he got the better of Vaclav Finek.
Earlier, Pune’s Harshit Raja had become India's 69th Grand Master.