New Delhi: King Odysseus of Ithaca feels the wait is coming to an end. Nearly ten years after the end of the Trojan War, he and his crew are finally able to return home, only to find that they are losing hope of returning. In Homer’s ancient Greek epic “The Odyssey”, the exhausted Odysseus once said: “All my comrades have been slain, and I am alone.” But even in the darkest moments of despair and doubt, he never gave up the desire to see Ithaca again.Rathanvel VS Like Odysseus, he feels as if he is within touching distance of his destiny, in this case the elusive Master (GM) title, only to watch it slip away time and time again. “Four years ago I would have probably become a grandmaster,” he told TimesofIndia.com in an exclusive interview. He doesn’t have to wait for norms. He collected those with ease. The result of four and a half years of waiting was one number: 2,500. Elo levels transform Grandmaster standards into true Grandmasters.On Saturday, in Assam, he finally crossed the river.“You know that feeling, you know you’re worthy, but somehow you still don’t get there,” said an elated, perhaps relieved, Rasanvir, who hails from Guwahati on his first visit to northeastern India.Now he didn’t have to wonder anymore. Rathanvel VS is the 99th Grandmaster of India.
free chess board
The Ratsanvir family of Coimbatore does not have a great chess pedigree. “When I was six or seven, I bought Horlicks or Compland, I can’t remember which,” he said. “They gave away a free chess board, so I started bugging my mom to play with me.”As a child, he kept pestering his mother for free room and board, and over time, he enrolled in a nearby academy, under the guidance of two local coaches, Krishnamoorthy and Dansekar, for whom Rasanveer still feels a true sense of gratitude.“I’m very grateful to them so far,” he said.The subsequent rise was not a straight line. By 2019, his weight had exceeded 2400 and reached 4 IM standards at the Abu Dhabi Masters.
By September 2021, at the First Saturday Championship in Hungary, he earned his first GM standard, and notably, his second standard was earned at the Vezerkepzo GM-MIX in the same month. The third time will be in 2022.On paper, Rasanwell has accomplished everything a player needs to become a grandmaster. He just doesn’t have the ratings for it.
stuck on edge
What follows is more of a cycle than a platform. “Whenever I get to the level of 2496, 2497, I’m just one win away and suddenly there’s too much pressure or whatever, and I make mistakes in winning the game,” Rathanvel revealed.“Once the slide happens, it just keeps going. I’ll bleed fifteen, twenty points at a time, then fix it, come back. It’s a pattern.“It’s very frustrating at times. I lose sleep and a lot of things related to it.”Injuries and environmental factors compounded the wait. His hand was broken twice. The coronavirus pandemic shut down international travel just as it was gaining momentum.College, a mechanical engineering degree from Hindustan College in Coimbatore, grabbed attention during the time someone born in 2001 could have spent chasing ratings.In his pursuit of the 2,500 viewership mark, the lowest point came in 2025, during a match against David Paravyan in Abu Dhabi.“I knew I was winning. But somehow I started making mistakes and I knew things were getting out of hand,” he said. “It was actually pretty heartbreaking. At one point, I also felt like maybe I should take a break and try something else.”He didn’t. Instead, on July 1 this year, he went to Assam to play two grade-level matches with a score of 2492 runs.He intentionally played against lower ranked opponents, players below 1600, and just didn’t lose. Ten consecutive wins. Eight Elo points. The number he had been chasing for four and a half years finally came true.
Lucky, but not that lucky…
“Every chess player, if they come from a very wealthy background, won’t have any financial problems. But in general, people who don’t come from that background usually have problems,” he told the site.“I’m very lucky in this situation. I have sponsorship from the MPL (Mobile Premier League). They are supporting me from 2019 to 2025.”In an event organized by MPL called Chess Mahayudh, Rathanvel played non-stop for 12 hours from 10 am to 10 pm against a string of opponents, beating one grandmaster and drawing five others along the way to end up with 256 wins out of 265 matches and a top prize of Rs 5 lakh.
However, this support did not last. The Indian government’s ban on real-money gaming platforms last year directly hit MPL, and the funding that supported Rathanvel through the most difficult years also ended.Behind this economic lifeline is a family running their own small business. His father Sivakumar and mother Senthil Vadivu run a wedding card printing company in Coimbatore. His younger brother Rohith is a lawyer.In chess, Rathanvel’s coaching circle went on to extend far beyond his first academy, with eminent mentors such as GM Vishnu Prasanna, GM Srinath Narayanan, GM Sundararajan Kidambi and GM Shyam Sundar having worked with him since then.
What happens after waiting
Sitting in Assam just after the title was confirmed, Rasanvir described the feeling as more of escape than excitement. “It’s actually a sense of satisfaction because it’s been dragging on for four and a half years,” he said.“Deep down I’m happy, but I actually don’t have the words to explain how I feel.”When asked what keeps him going, he didn’t point to ambition or ranking.“When I see my parents wanting me to cross that line, that’s the only thing that keeps me going,” he said. “It also gives you a sense of satisfaction and closure. That’s something I was missing, but luckily I managed to get it over with today.”He’s realistic about what the general manager title will and won’t change. He knew the top invitational tournament was still out of reach.“I wasn’t sure if I was going to get it because once you put in 2,650 or higher, you get selected for these events,” he said. “But in general, being a grandmaster makes it easy for organizers to follow you, and you can get accommodation and other things, which takes the financial burden off of you.”Also read: India welcomes its 98th general manager! Both parents are chess coaches, 10th board exams put on hold: The making of Aswath S He already teaches chess online as a freelance tutor, and he says his own academy is in the works.“I can’t say I’m going to quit chess,” he said when asked whether the sport was a career or something more temporary. “My life would probably revolve around chess.”
