Building Future Grandmasters: A Conversation with WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy

by Jyotsna Bhushan - 15/08/2026

In this insightful interview, WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy discusses the success of the recent Chola Chess norm events, the strategic shift toward hosting competitive tournaments within India, and the vision behind nurturing the next generation of Indian chess talent through Chess Gurukul. She reflects on the evolution of the game, the importance of merit-based competition, and the collaborative effort with Kanika and Mr. Vellayan Subbiah to create opportunities for young player

From Player to Mentor: WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy on the Evolution of Modern Chess

WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy takes us behind the scenes of the Chola Chess Foundation's initiative to host high-level norm events within India, eliminating the need for costly international travel. In this conversation, she breaks down the philosophy of curating strong, merit-based fields, the evolution of modern chess, and the collaborative vision alongside Kanika and Mr Vellayan Subbiah to empower a new generation of players.

Devansh Singh: So ma'am, now that the tournament is over, how was your experience?

WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy: This is our second GM norm event, and we are very happy to conduct it. We got our first norm from this tournament, and Harshavardhan also completed his title, so we are very happy for him. More norms mean more success for the tournament.

DS: That's fantastic. Harshavardhan completed his GM title, and Daakshin got his second IM norm. This is a wonderful initiative by Chola Chess. Are you planning more round robins this year or next?
AR: We have one more round robin planned, a GM norm round robin and an IM round robin, but that will be before March, 2027. We're not sure whether it will happen this year or next year, but we will do it.

DS: Earlier, players used to travel abroad for norms, which is expensive and time-consuming. You're also a player yourself and must have travelled a lot in your time. What made you think, "we need to do something about this"?

AR: The idea of conducting these norm events was actually suggested by Kanika ma'am, who is from the Cholamandalam family. She was instrumental in planning these events. We were first discussing the coaching side of things. After completing around 50 camps, we were figuring out how to help the kids further. We realised most players travel abroad and it's very expensive, so we discussed sponsoring them for tournaments. Then Kanika ma'am suggested, why don't we organise tournaments here instead? That way the kids don't need to travel; the food, climate, everything is different abroad. But if we provide good conditions here, they can get their norms in India itself. That was our main motivation, and now we're happy to see the norms coming through.

DS: You also work closely with Chess Gurukul and have watched players like Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali grow up. Pragg just won Norway Chess, and Vaishali is heading to the World Championship. Having gone through your own transition from playing to coaching, how does it feel to watch them now?

Aarthie and Praggnanandhaa at World Team Rapid 2026. | Photo: Michal Walusza

AR: For any women's chess player, I think we are all very happy that Vaishali is there challenging her Chinese counterpart. It feels like we are living our dreams through her. We would love to see a World Champion from India, and some opportunities we missed are now coming through her. I think this is the general feeling among most women players and former women players from India that we are all very happy and genuinely rooting for her, and the right thing to say is that we are living our dreams through her.

DS: You were recently in Hong Kong with the Chess Gurukul team. How was that experience, being around players like Arvind, Pragg, Vaishali, and Karthikeyan, whom you've known since they were kids?

WGM Aarthie with GM Vaishali Rameshbabu, Pranesh, and Harshini.

AR: Our team was a totally homegrown Chess Gurukul team, so even our below-2000 player is from Chess Gurukul, so we wanted to keep it very organic. It was more than a tournament for us. We had never all been together for three or four days at one event before. It's a comparatively low-pressure event compared to others, so the children really enjoyed being together and going as a team, coming back as a team. It was a wonderful chance for all of us to mingle more, because Vaishali, Pragg, and Aravindh are now all playing in different events. Earlier, we used to be at the same tournaments, but now even Pranesh and Karthikeyan are scattered across different events, so they rarely get time to interact. This tournament was amazing because we all had a good time. Results-wise, we could have done better, but we were happy overall, especially beating the Uzbekistan Olympiad team in rapid.

WGM Aarthie with GM Aravindh Chitambaram

DS: As a former player watching games as captain, do you ever get the urge to come back and play?
AR: The urge to come back to the game is there, but not really while watching a game, because chess has become so fast now. I was playing competitive chess 20 years ago, and compared to that, the game today is much quicker. One big difference I've noticed is in the openings. Now, they've become very unconventional. Earlier, it was mostly main lines with sharp variations you had to calculate. Now players can play something like d4 and Bf4 and call it a main line, or play b4, or b3. The whole opening structure has changed, and on top of that, the game itself has gotten faster.

DS: I was discussing something similar with Harshavardhan's father about the pre-engine era, when players would adjourn a game, go home, analyse on their own, and come back the next day to continue. Chess has obviously evolved a lot, but which do you prefer, the old way or now?

AR: I'd say I was in the midst of both. I had played one or two adjourned games early in my career, but after that it was all the same format, which was an hour and a half and then finished. I was mostly in the Fischer time control era; rapid and blitz were far less common then; standard was always the main format. We did have basic engines like Fritz 4 and Fritz 5, and ChessBase's database was always there. So, we used it to check games of opponents before events like the World Championship and so on. But I think a mix of both is good. I don't prefer chess without engines entirely, but a little bit of engine use was fine, because the amount of preparation we did before a game was far less than what kids do today because there's just so much material available now.

Check out the interview with GM Harshavardhan's father on raising a grandmaster!

DS: Last time, after Norway Chess, we learned that a couple of trainers were working with Pragg. Without giving too much away, is anyone currently working with the team?
AR: That will be a surprise to be revealed! Last time we had Mahel Boyer and Joseph Girel here. We invited them so we could meet and interact in person, since it was always online before that. When they came, they told me the tournament was very tough! Both of them had a difficult time here. This time we have Antonio from France, an IM seeker playing in the GM category. Before he came, Joseph apparently told him not to expect it to be easy, and that even scoring zero would be worthwhile just for the experience.

DS: We also heard at the closing ceremony that Krasenkow is going to organise a camp from the 1st to the 5th. Was bringing him here a planned move?
AR: Correct. We had a camp with Krasenkow earlier this year, in March. This time we thought the cost of flying him in just for one camp was too high, so when we were scouting for a player for the GM norm event, Ramesh tweeted about it and Krasenkow replied wanting to play. We told him we couldn't cover his flight from Poland and back just for one event, so we asked if he'd like to combine it with a camp, which he agreed to. So it's a bit of a cost-cutting move on our part, and he's a fantastic player and an amazing trainer. He comes prepared with really tough positions for the students.

GM Krasenkow with Harshavardhan GB at Chola Chess Tournament.

DS: Regarding the tournament itself, Fedorov was playing really well, Krasenkow was crushing everyone, and Nikitenko was also in great form. In some tournaments abroad, weaker GMs are brought in so norm-seekers can score more easily, but you've done the opposite from the very first edition, and Suleymenov crushed the field, and now Krasenkow won it too. Is that a deliberate philosophy that players should have to fight tough opposition to earn a norm?
AR: Yes, this was Ramesh's idea. When we were scouting players, he insisted we get GMs who are currently active professionals, because that gives the kids a real challenge. Ramesh feels our children are talented enough to bring out their best against strong fields, so there was no need to weaken the field or resort to anything dubious. That's our approach: all our tournaments will feature very strong GMs. As I mentioned at the closing ceremony, both our GM norm tournaments have been won by strong professionals, first Alisher, and this time Krasenkow. Hopefully next time it will be one of our own students.

DS: Krasenkow told me something similar: if you want to be a Grandmaster, you have to beat a Grandmaster. It's a great initiative, and I hope it continues, especially since two norms came out of this edition. Lastly, how are the Indian players selected for these norm events? Harshavardhan mentioned that in the first edition, entries closed before he could get in.
AR: It's not me or Ramesh personally selecting them. Norm-seekers apply to us, and we have a rating cut-off from which we shortlist candidates. Since we train a large number of children at Chola Chess Foundation, they usually know about the tournament in advance and apply quickly. The process is purely merit-based, and players with two existing norms are given priority. Generally, we take one or two players from our own training program and one or two from outside it. Last time, for instance, we had Aronyak Ghosh, who had a higher rating than Harshavardhan, so we had to include him on merit.

Aarthie Ramaswamy at the opening day of a chess club by the Chola Chess Foundation in Chennai.

DS: Interestingly, in that earlier tournament, Aronyak and Ethan both missed their norms, but all three of them, Aronyak, Mayank, and Ethan, are Grandmasters today. That says a lot about the quality of players you're attracting, even if the field was too tough for them to score at the time. How is Chess Gurukul doing these days?
AR: Chess Gurukul is doing well. We just played the Hong Kong event and were very happy about it. All our Chess Gurukul trainers and support staff have also been helping with Chola's work, but now that this tournament is over, we'll focus more on Chess Gurukul. We will have more training camps with grandmasters and so on. We want to bring back the legacy, because our senior batch Pragg, Vaishali, Aravindh, Karthikeyan are all graduating to the super-grandmaster level now. So we need to bring through the next crop from Chess Gurukul.

DS: I believe Pranesh is part of that next group, right?
AR: Yes, Pranesh is there, and now we also have Rakshitta Ravi and Savitha Shri. I think we will push all these children to the next level now.

DS: They're all doing really well, and I think Savitha recently won a national title.
AR: Yes, Savitha won the Asian Individual Chess Championship.

DS: That's a wonderful initiative, ma'am, and I hope to see more grandmasters emerge from this program. Thank you for your time.
AR: We should thank Chairman Mr Vellayan Subbiah of Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company. He's the one who gave us a free hand for this program. He told us we need to create the next crop of players, that the next generation should come through, and asked us to do what we could, and that's how this program came about. When we brought the idea to them, they were very impressed and told us to go ahead. So Kanika ma'am and Vellayan sir are the main people behind this program. Huge thanks to both of them for powering Indian chess.

Check out the full video with the amazing WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy here!!!