Ritviz Parab becomes the sixth International Master from Goa

by Shahid Ahmed - 12/10/2023

23-year-old Ritviz Parab became India's latest International Master on 21st September 2023. He drew against GM Sethuraman S P in the second round of Tsaghkadzor Open 2023 in Armenia, to cross 2400 in the live ratings. The talented youth from Goa also became the fifth IM from his state. Anurag Mhamal, Bhakti Kulkarni, Leon Luke Mendonca, Ameya Audi and Nitish Belurkar are the first five. Ritviz earned his first IM-norm in April 2015 at 15th BCC Open in Pattaya, Thailand. Over 3.5 years later, he secured his second IM-norm at National Senior 2018 in Jammu. The final norm was scored over 4.5 years later at 29th Abu Dhabi Masters 2023 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia

More than eight years between first and third IM-norm

There are quite a few players who are/have been very close to the IM/GM title. Yet, the final alluring norm or the rating requirement, the last hurdle took quite some time to overcome. What matters the most is, the never-give-up attitude. Ritviz Parab earned his first IM-norm back in April 2015. His final IM-norm was scored in August 2023 and in the following month, he crossed the rating barrier to become one of the latest IMs of India. 21st September 2023 is the day India got two new IMs - Ayush Sharma and Ritviz Parab.

Ritviz Parab becomes the latest IM of India | Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia

Ritviz Parab had 2297 in July 2022 and now he is at 2403 in October 2023 FIDE Rating list | Source: FIDE

First IM norm: 15th Bangkok Chess Club Open 2015

Ritviz Parab scored his first IM-norm at 15th Bangkok Chess Club Open in April 2015. He made a blazing start by scoring a hat-trick including wins against two IMs. He scored 5.5/11 including wins over IM Dr. Beikert Guenther (GER), IM Guy West (AUS), drew against GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly and GM Eugenio Torre (PHI).

Ritviz Parab scored 5.5/9, performed at 2433 and gained 117.2 Elo rating points en route his maiden IM-norm

Second IM-norm: National Senior Open 2018

Over 3.5 years later, Ritviz Parab scored his second IM-norm at National Senior 2018. He scored 8.5/13, including wins over IM Nitin S, IM Chandrashekhar Gokhale, drew against GM Deep Sengupta, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy, then IM Akash G and then IM Vignesh N R.

Ritviz Parab (right) with his second IM-norm certificate at the prize distribution ceremony of National Senior 2018 | Photo: Atul Kumar Gupta

Ritviz Parab scored 8.5/13, performed at 2338 to earn his second IM-norm, increased his Elo rating by 31.6 points

Third IM-norm: 29th Abu Dhabi Masters 2023

Ritviz secured his final IM-norm at 29th Abu Dhabi Masters 2023, four and half years after he scored his second IM-norm. He had a tough start of scoring only 0.5/3. However, he made a strong comeback by scoring 5/6 in the next six games, including a hat-trick in the last three rounds of the event. He defeated IM Jubin Jimmy and IM Madaminov Mukhiddin (UZB), and drew against IM Ahmad Ahmadzada (AZE).

Ritviz - Jubin

Position after 17.Rxe6

Ritviz (2369) made a fantastic rook sacrifice 17.Rxe6! There is no immediate win for White after 17...fxe6 18.Bxe6. However, White gains a long-term positional advantage. The game continued 17...b5 18.Rxe7! Qxe7 19.Bxb5 White sacrificed another piece. It is actually a temporary sacrifice because 19...cxb5 runs into 20.Qd5 threatening both Bd6 and Qxa8. 19...Kg7 20.Ba4 Qe4 21.Bg3 and White went on to win the game.

Ritviz Parab with his third IM-norm certificate at 29th Abu Dhabi Masters 2023 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Ritviz Parab scored 5.5/9, performed at 2463 and gained 23.4 Elo rating points en route his final IM-norm

Live rating 2400: Tsaghkadzor Open 2023

Almost a month after earning his final IM-norm, Ritviz Parab crossed 2400 in the live ratings when he drew against GM Sethuraman S P in the second round of Tsaghkadzor Open 2023. Ritviz finished the event with a score 5.5/9. His rating as of October 2023 FIDE Rating list is 2403.

Ritviz Parab in action at Tsaghkadzor Open 2023 | Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia

Ritviz Parab crossed 2400 in the live ratings when he drew against GM Sethuraman SP in the second round

IM V Saravanan

"Ritviz is a kind of a late developer. He is one of those many talents of India who could have developed much faster and gone much stronger if things had happened at an earlier stage - proper coaching, proper training, good breakout tournaments and all that. He is of the elder side now - 24. We started working fairly recently let's say, within a year or so. I find him very unique in many ways, very honest and very straightforward as a human being, very simplistic and all that. One of the main reasons we decided to work with each other, as well as it has going very well for each other. I enjoy working with him and I hope he is also enjoying working with me.

Ritviz is very passionate about chess. He loves chess, he loves the game. He is someone who will be very very ready to work on any aspect of the game. He is really eager to work on chess and improve his chess and all that. Fairly confident as a person, lot of many positive things about him. If he sustains the inspiration, interest and passion for the game which he has today, if he manages to work on it forever, if he can overcome his laziness which is part of his personality. It is part of many of us. He can really go quite far. He made the IM title within very quick time of starting to working on his chess in a systematic way. So Grandmaster title and beyond that can also come very quickly to him. Of course, achieving as much as he can and all that, is basically a long road ahead.

For a chess player, the growth never happens in a linear, straight forward way. It all depends on what we do at every stage of our development. If he does some technical adjustments to his game itself, even today he is a Grandmaster. It is definitely possible to go much beyond just a Grandmaster. Again, it all depends on so many things. At each and every level, how his chess develops and all that. I think he has quite the potential. More than anything, for the love of the game he has, he deserves to go very high."