3 min readUpdated: Jul 18, 2026 11:41 PM IST VS Rathanvel has become India’s 99th grandmaster, crossing the 2500 Elo rating mark at the Guwahati Smart City International Open 2026. The 25-year-old’s achievement has brought India within one of breaching the 100 GMs mark. Rathanvel, who had been coached by grandmasters Vishnu Prasanna, Narayanan Srinath, Shyam Sundar and Sundarrajan Kidambi, had earlier completed his three GM norms in 2022. Reaching the 100 GMs mark would be a remarkable milestone for chess in India. It was in 1987 when India got its first grandmaster in the form of the legendary Viswanathan Anand when he had won the Shakti Finance International chess tournament held in Coimbatore, incidentally the city that Rathanvel hails from. Rathanvel repeatedly fell short of the rating requirement, turning what should have been the final step into a prolonged test of patience and mental resilience. Rathanvel has won the bronze medal at the World Youth U10 and has been one of India’s strongest International Masters for several years. “I came very close on multiple …