Ilamparthi A R becomes the 90th Grandmaster of India
IM Ilamparthi A R became the 90th Indian to achieve the Grandmaster title on Thursday 30th October 2025. Ilamparthi earned his first GM-norm in November 2023 at Ha Noi GM Round-Robin in Vietnam. A year and a day later, he scored his second GM-norm at Singapore International Open in November 2024. The teenager got a published rating of 2505 in February 2025 rating list. Eight months later, he scored his final GM-norm at GM4 Festival šaha "Bijeljina 2025" in Bijeljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The former World Under-14 champion showed signs of excellence early in his career. The GM title was inevitable for him. Photo: Shahid Ahmed
Three GM-norms and 2500+ in two years
IM Ilamparthi A R started playing tournaments in 2014. He has won a multitude of State, National and Rating Open tournaments. Winning the World Under-14 Open Championship was a significant milestone. The first time I saw Ilamparthi was back in 2019 when he won National Under-9 Open in Ranchi, Jharkhand. He travelled to that tournament with his coach and without his parents. Since then he has travelled to various tournaments on his own or with some company. The talented boy is battle hardened. He is working with GM ShyamSundar M for quite some time. He is also one of the best trainers of India today. Four out of the six GMs India got today are trained by ShyamSundar. We already got the 91st Grandmaster in the form of Raahul V S. It will be mentioned in detail in a separate report.
First GM-norm: Ha Noi GM Chess tournament - November 2023
IM Ilamparthi A R earned his first GM-norm at Ha Noi GM Round-Robin - November 2023 in Ha Noi, Vietnam. Despite suffering a loss in the third round, he bounced back by scoring 5.5/6 in the next six games. He scored 7/9 to earn his first GM-norm, including wins against GM Niaz Murshed (BAN), GM Tran Tuan Minh (VIE), draws against GM Vui Binh (VIE) and GM Cao Sang (VIE).
Ilamparthi - Tran Tuna, Round 4
IM Ilamparthi A R (2385) found a nice move 30.Nd4! which gave him the decisive advantage c3+ 31.Qxc3 Bd5 32.Nb3 Bxg5 33.Rd1 Qb7 34.Rdxd5 Bf6 35.Bd4 Rc8 36.Qd2 a5 37.Rb5 Qc7 and White won against GM Tran Tuan Minh (VIE, 2484).
Second GM-norm: Singapore International Open 2024
A year and a day later, Ilamparthi scored his second GM-norm at Singapore International Open 2024 in Singapore. He scored an impressive 6.5/9, defeated GM Kacper Piorun (POL), GM Alan Pichot (ESP) and GM Karthik Venkataraman, drew against GM Sethuraman S P, GM Shanglei Lu (CHN), and GM Vahap Sanal (TUR) on his way to his second GM-norm.
Pichot - Ilamparthi, Round 5
24.Nf3? created a target for Black as the-file is semi-open. 24...h5 first deflecting one of the guards 25.Qh4 Rf6 Black is definitely disinterested in trading queens. 26.Rfd1 Qf7 27.c5 Rf8 28.Rxd6 Rxf3 29.Rd7 Rxf2+ 30.Kh3 Kh6 31.Rxf7 R8xf7 and Black won.
Third GM-norm: GM4 Festival šaha "Bijeljina 2025"
Ilamparthi got a published rating of 2505 in February 2025 FIDE Rating list. The final GM-norm was scored at GM4 Festival šaha "Bijeljina 2025" in Bijelina, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He defeated GM Slavko Cicak (SWE), GM Dalibor Stojanovic (BIH) and GM Miloje Ratkovic (SRB).
Replay Ilamparthi's games
GM ShyamSundar M shared with us: "Ilamparthi is a dedicated and a hardworking boy with zero distractions. He spends most of his time at my academy whenever he's in Chennai. He has always listened to whatever I say! For instance:- He loves to solve studies, but at some point I felt it was affecting his game, and I told him to not do that for a while and he listened and hasn't done studies for quite some time."
Shyam adds about Ilamparthi's parents, "There is zero pressure from his parents. They don't care what openings he plays and never questioned me in any aspect. This definitely played a huge role and made me free to decide his tournaments and his opening choices and his style of play." Shyam has played a critical role in Ilamparthi's growth and in making him a grandmaster.
Ilamparthi is supported by Ambit scholarship for the year 2024-25 through HelpChess (Rs.5 lakh). Group e4 has supported Ilamparthi (Rs 2.5 lakh). He has been supported by Energi Projekt for several years now for his training (Rs.3 lakh). Ilamparthi is a mentee of the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA) and recently, WestBridge has come forward to support the youngster with Rs.20 lakh per year. This is sure to help Ilamparthi take the next big leap in his career. The boy is also supported by Velammal school, the same school where many of the stars of Indian chess have studied including Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa.
In 2022, when Anish Giri won the Death Match in India, he supported Ilamparthi's growth by donating that amount to HelpChess. A big thank you to Anish for his thoughtful gesture. The viewers of ChessBase India will remember the golden stream in pandemic in 2020 where thousands of people gave superchats and Ilamparthi was there on the screen. He was also part of the Super Juniors Cup as a commentator. His "Arey Rook" statement when playing with Samay in a hand and brain game was hilarious and very memorable!
Our Cofounder and CEO shared - you will see one of the pictures of Ilamparthi with Gukesh above. This is taken during February 2023, when Gukesh and Ilamparthi travelled together in a train from Dusseldorf to Hamburg after WR Chess. Ilamparthi was testing Gukesh with some tough studies! While we shot this video, we saw the immense calculating abilities of Ilamparthi. He was able to match Gukesh in many of the calculations! Well, we all know where Gukesh has reached in these last 2.5 years! And we are very sure that Ilamparthi has an extremely bright future ahead of him!
Ilamparthi's best achievements
• Gold - World Youth Under-14 Open 2017
• Gold - Asian Youth Under-18 Rapid 2022
• Gold - Asian Youth Rapid and Blitz Under-8 Open 2017
• Gold for Velammal MHS Mogappair - World Schools Team 2025
• Silver - Asian Youth Under-10 Open 2019
• Silver - Asian Youth Under-8 Open 2017
• Silver - Commonwealth Under-10 Open 2019
• Bronze - World Youth Under-16 Olympiad 2025
• Champion - Singh's Gambit Rapid Rating Open 2024
• Champion - WR Chess Juniors 2023
• Champion - Mrs. Meena Memorial Rapid Rating Open 2022
• Champion - 30th CUSAT Rating Open 2019
• Champion - 49th National Sub-Junior Open 2024
• Champion - 32nd National Under-9 Open 2018
• Champion - 5th National School Under-7 Open 2016
• Champion - Solving Competition at Prague International Chess Festival 2024
• Runner-up - 30th National Under-7 Open 2016
• Runner-up - 4th National Schools Under-7 Open 2015
• Second Runner-up - 34th National Under-14 Open 2022
• Second Runner-up - 31st National Under-18 Open 2022
• Champion - 68th Tamil Nadu State Open 2021
• Champion - Tamil Nadu State Online Under-14 Open 2021
• Champion - Tamil Nadu State Online Under-12 Open 2021
• Champion - 31st Tamil Nadu State Under-9 Open 2018
• Champion - 29th Tamil Nadu State Under-7 Boys 2016
• Runner-up - 30th Tamil Nadu State Under-9 Open 2017
• Runner-up - 28th Tamil Nadu State Under-7 Boys 2015
• Runner-up - 4th National Schools Under-7 Open 2015
• Second Runner-up - Tamil Nadu State Under-15 Open 2021
• Second Runner-up - Tamil Nadu State Under-9 Open 2016
• Champion - Chengalpattu District Under-15 Boys 2021
Replay all Ilamparthi's games
Videos
Ilamparthi's Playlist on youtube