At 25, late bloomer Aravindh Chithambaram makes years of toil count

Aravindh Chithambaram emerges as a resilient chess king, rising through adversity to claim victory in Prague Masters.

At 25, Aravindh Chithambaram is a late bloomer when compared to teenaged sensations like D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa who are ruling the global chess circuit right now but the manner in which he maneuvered the odds in his life through 64 squares, he seems a resilient king in the making.

His Prague Masters triumph has made the chess fraternity warm up to the Madurai born Aravindh, who lost his father when he was only three. The mother worked as an LIC agent, and was brave enough to take a punt on his life by shifting base from Madurai to Chennai, which is India's unofficial chess capital.

The years of sacrifice and hard work is finally paying dividends. The iconic Vellamal School, which is the alma mater of World Champion Gukesh, now has another international player of repute to boast about. After all Aravindh is Gukesh's senior.

The victory at Prague has earned him a wild card to the prestigious Grand Chess Tour in Poland.

“I have been getting invitations during the course of the tournament and Grand Chess Tour Rapid and Blitz (event) is one of them," Aravindh informed.. “I have been getting invitations during the course of the tournament and Grand Chess Tour Rapid and Blitz (event) is one of them," Aravindh informed.

Normally, a top-20 slot in the world rankings guarantees at least a few invitations at top tournaments but before Prague, Aravindh had confirmed his participation in the Sharjah Masters and the Biel International, the events slated in May and July respectively.

Aravindh is now supported by the Cholamandalam group but very few remember when Viswanathan Anand lost his world title to Magnus Carlsen in Chennai back in 2013, at the same time, schoolboy Aravindh was garnering attention at the other end of the city in an International Open meet.