Hyderabad: Telangana boy Raja Rithvik on Saturday received the title of Grandmaster (GM) which every chess player considers a great achievement. He became the 70th Grandmaster from the India.
At the Vezerkepzo Grandmaster (GM) Chess Tournament in Budapest in Hungary, 17-year-old Raja Ritivak crossed the 2,500 ELO rating milestone required to finalize GM status.
Rithvik earned his third and final benchmark from GM earlier this month in the Grandmaster Championship held on the first Saturday. He got his first standard at GM in 2019, and the second in 2021 August.
On Sunday, Information technology minister K.T. Rama Rao (KTR) took to Twitter and congratulated Raja Rithvik for his achievement.
“Many congratulations to Raja Rithvik of Telangana who’s been recognised as the latest Grand Master from India by FIDE. Great going young man,” he tweeted.
Raja Rithvik from Warangal district fell in love with chess at the age of six years. Rithvik’s father R Srinivasa Rao played chess at the university level. Rithvik in Warangal learned almost everything, and then the local coach Bolle Sampath Rao in Hyderabad at kenarasinha nurtured his performances. For the past four years Rithvik, who is training with N.V.S. Rama Raju, is currently studying in class 12 at Bhavans Sri Ramakrishna Vidyalaya in Secunderabad.
Harvest of medals:
Rithvik, who won silver in the under-8 division at the 2012 Commonwealth Championships, never looked back. In 2018 he won gold medals at the asian youth champion.
Rithvik, who became the national Under-13 champion in June 2017, also won the national under-17 championship in October of the same year. Overall, Rithvik has so far won three golds, two silvers at the national level. 10 golds, two silvers and a bronze at the international level.
“Very happy to have earned the Grandmaster status. I will move forward with more enthusiasm with this title. My next goal is to receive a 2,600 ELO rating. My life goal is to become a world champion any day in the future,” Raja Ritvik told media reporters.
Rithvik is the third player to become Grandmaster from Telangana. In the past, Harsha Bharathakoti and Arjun Erigaisi have achieved this feat.
Rithvik is the eighth player from Telugu states to be awarded Grandmaster status. Previously Pentala Harikrishna, Koneru Humpy, Harika, Lalit Babu, Karthik Venkataraman from Andhra Pradesh has achieved this feat