1/29/2026 – As the Tata Steel Chess tournament approaches its final stretch, the Masters section saw another eventful day: Matthias Bluebaum's second straight win moved him into shared second place, while Gukesh Dommaraju, Vincent Keymer and Aravindh Chithambaram also scored victories. Nodirbek Abdusattorov remains in front after signing a non-trivial draw with Vladimir Fedoseev. In the Challengers, Vasyl Ivanchuk defeated former leader Andy Woodward, allowing Aydin Suleymanli's third consecutive win to carry him into sole first place. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess / Lennart Ootes

6/10/2025 – "Enjoy the best game. Ever." That’s the slogan of the "New in Chess Magazine" – and the current issue lives up to that promise. It explores the question of whether Boris Spassky would have preferred to be buried next to Bobby Fischer, features in-depth interviews with Hikaru Nakamura and Aravindh Chithambaram, and includes the magazine’s regular columns offering training advice and entertaining insights from the world of chess. Informative and engaging.

6/9/2025 – Indian grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram claimed victory at the 2025 Stepan Avagyan Memorial in Jermuk, Armenia, edging out Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu on tiebreaks after both scored 6½/9 points. The tournament, a 10-player round-robin held from 29 May to 6 June, marked a key milestone in Aravindh's career as he entered the world top 10 for the first time. His result also moved him to second place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit standings. | Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia

4/28/2025 – The rapid section of the Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland tournament ended with Aravindh Chithambaram, Vladimir Fedoseev and Alireza Firouzja sharing the lead on 11 points. Held in Warsaw as the first event of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour, the competition now moves on to 18 rounds of blitz. Aravindh scored an important victory over Firouzja in a dramatic game that saw the latter losing on time. Levon Aronian, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave remain within reach of the leaders. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

4/1/2025 – India’s presence in elite chess continues to strengthen, with Aravindh Chithambaram reaching world number 11 in the latest FIDE rankings. The 25-year-old grandmaster from Madurai recently won the Prague Masters and delivered a flawless performance in the German Bundesliga, gaining 17.5 rating points. His rise places him among India's top players, alongside Gukesh Dommaraju, Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. With strong tournament results, Aravindh is now a serious contender for a place in the next Candidates Tournament. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

3/8/2025 – The seventh edition of the Prague Chess Festival concluded with Aravindh Chithambaram winning the Masters section after securing an undefeated 6/9 score. His final-round draw against Ediz Gürel ensured victory as Anish Giri defeated Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, the only player who could have caught him. In the Challengers section, Nodirbek Yakubboev claimed first place after defeating Jonas Buhl Bjerre in a blitz tiebreak. With this win, Yakubboev secured a spot in next year's Masters tournament. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

3/7/2025 – In the new episode of their 'Two Knights Talk' show, Arne Kähler and Johannes Fischer look back at the Prague Chess Festival and recall unusual and stunning moves from chess history. And they present another puzzle to test your linguistic skills and knowledge of chess history.

3/6/2025 – The seventh round of the Masters at the Prague Chess Festival saw Aravindh Chithambaram beating Anish Giri with black in what perhaps was the best game of the tournament so far. With this victory, Aravindh took the sole lead in the standings, as Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu was unable to get more than a draw against Wei Yi. Vincent Keymer fared similarly, as he put David Navara under pressure for a long time, but in the end had to be satisfied with half a point. Sam Shankland and Ediz Gürel had more luck: Shankland won with black against Le Quang Liem, while Gürel won with white against Thai Dai Van Nguyen. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

3/1/2025 – Aravindh Chithambaran grabbed a second win in a row to grab the sole lead at the Masters section of the Prague Chess Festival. Meanwhile, Vincent Keymer continues to play all or nothing - after his round-one win against Wei Yi, he lost to Aravindh, and has now defeated Sam Shankland with black. The third decisive game of the day in the Masters saw Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu beating Thai Dai Van Nguyen. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

2/28/2025 – Vincent Keymer started the Prague Chess Festival with a convincing win, but in round two he suffered a defeat against Aravindh Chithambaram (pictured), who surprised Keymer with a double-edged and rare opening. The four other games in the Masters section all ended in draws. In the Challengers, two of the five games ended decisively, but there could have easily been more. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

11/12/2024 – The Chennai Grand Masters tournament concluded with a thrilling final round in the Masters section. In a surprising turn, Aravindh Chithambaram emerged victorious after defeating Parham Maghsoodloo and then besting elite players Arjun Erigaisi and Levon Aronian in tiebreaks. Meanwhile, in the Challengers, 18-year-old Pranav Venkatesh maintained his lead by holding Leon Luke Mendonca to a draw, securing first place and a spot in next year's Masters section. | Photos: Aditya Sur Roy and Anmol Bhargav

5/19/2024 – Aravindh Chithambaram became the first sole leader at the 2024 Sharjah Masters after beating Saleh Salem in Saturday’s fifth round. The 24-year-old Indian GM has so far collected 4½ points and stands a half point ahead of a 4-player chasing pack consisting of Amin Tabatabaei, Hans Niemann, Sam Shankland and Bardiya Daneshvar. Aravindh is set to face Shankland with black on Sunday. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

4/3/2024 – GM Aravindh Chithambaram (India), IM Siddharth Jagadeesh (Singapore) and GM Carlos Albornoz (Cuba) scored an unbeaten 7/9 each at the 50th La Roda Open. Aravindh won the tournament thanks to his better tiebreak score. Albornoz drew against Aravindh in the final round in an exciting game. This was the first rating tournament that Aravindh played this year in any format, and he won it emphatically. | Photo: Official website

4/14/2023 – The La Roda Open took place on April 5-9 in La Roda, a small town located in the province of Albacete. The 9-round Swiss open saw two players scoring 7½ points, Alexandr Fier and Aravindh Chithambaram. Fier was declared champion thanks to his better tiebreaker score. A number of Indian players had strong performances, as Pranav, Iniyan and top seed Narayanan all collected 7 points in the tournament. | Photos: Official website

6/6/2022 – The second leg of the MPL Indian Chess Tour, sponsored by the Play Magnus Group, took place on June 2-6 as a 16-player single round-robin. Aravindh Chithambaram and Nihal Sarin finished in shared first place on 32/45 points — the football scoring system was in place — but Aravindh scored a higher number of wins, which granted him tournament victory. This win earned Aravindh a spot in the next event of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour.

2/28/2020 – Current under-14 world champion Aydin Suleymanli was declared winner of the strong Aeroflot Open after getting the best tiebreak score among four players tied atop the standings on 6½ out of 9. Second place went to Rinat Jumabayev, who defeated Alexander Shimanov on Thursday, while former sole leader Rauf Mamedov got the bronze medal. The last player to end on 6½ was Aravindh Chithambaram, who got the better of Sanan Sjugirov in the final round. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

9/13/2019 – A number of upsets were in store at the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, as round one concluded after twenty-three matches were decided on tiebreaks. Most play-off encounters finished after the first pair of rapid games, while only two of them reached the third stage of tiebreaks. From the top quarter of the tournament bracket, besides Radek Wojtaszek and David Navara — who were knocked out in the classical phase — Bu Xiangzhi and Sam Shankland were eliminated before round two. | Photo: FIDE

2/22/2019 – Four out of six players on a perfect 2/2 score at the Aeroflot Open are Indians, as fighting chess was the rule during Thursday's second round. Incidentally, none of the co-leaders are among the top-10 rating favourites, a rather expected fact given the strength of the tournament. However, some of the highest-rated players scored their first wins on round two, including Wei Yi, Wang Hao and Anton Korobov. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili / Russian Chess Federation

12/24/2017 – The "Sunway Chess Festival" ended today in the Catalan city of Sitges. In the last round, the game between the 18-year-old Indian Chithambaram VR Aravindh and Zdenko Kozul from Croatia was the top duel: Both players had previously led the field together with 6½ / 8 each. In a balanced, but extremely sharp position, Kozul finally went wrong, which left the Indian with 7½ / 9 and the sole tournament winner. "Chessbrah" Aman Hambleton earned his third and final GM norm. | Photo: twitter.com/sunwaychessopen

11/27/2017 – Norway has a second World Champion: in Tarvisio, Italy, Aryan Tari won the World Junior Championship with 8½/11. He shared first place with Manuel Petrosyan from Armenia and the Indian Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. but had the best tiebreak. At the World Junior Championship for Girls Zhansaya Abdumalik took clear first with 9½/11. | Photo: Bernd Vökler

1/5/2014 – During the Chennai World Championship match there was a grandmaster open. It was sensationally won by Aravindh Chithambaram, a 14-year-old FM with a 2335 FIDE rating. Aravindh had a performance rating of 2728 and gained 80 Elo points from this one tournament. One of the brightest Indian chess talents hails from a very modest family background and urgently needs funding for his chess career.