Travels with rice cooker, no pressure: How a Chennai teen became India’s 90th GM

CHENNAI: Since the beginning of this year, AR Ilamparthi, all of 16, has been traveling alone for international chess tournaments. A rice cooker is an essential part of his travel bag. Meal preps, planning travels and booking accommodation eat into his practice time and, at times, stresses him out. But none of it could stop him from becoming India's 90th Chess Grandmaster on Thursday.

"I have never put any pressure on him. When we introduced him to chess at about 4-5 years, he was good at it and started winning age group tournaments. We continued to support him. Even now, I tell him to not worry about the ratings of opponents and only focus on his game," said V Ravikumar, Ilamparthi's father. Ravikumar works as a software engineer in a private firm.

Ilamparthi's mother, P Gayathri, a science teacher at a Chennai Corporation school in Velachery, recalled that when Ilamparthi was born, she wanted to train him to become a scientist. "An astrophysicist. But he got very good at chess. Frankly, I do not know anything about the game. The efforts are all my husband’s and his coaches, but my son has made me very proud. I was shedding happy tears the whole day at work," Gayathri told DT Next.

Ilamparthi's achievement was announced at the prayer meet in Gayathri's school on Friday by the headmaster, and several of her colleagues shared messages, even from their family members, after the news broke.

Gayathri shares how Ilamparthi would frantically make video calls when his electric rice cooker doesn’t work well during tournaments; she feels sorry that neither she nor her husband could accompany him.

Ravikumar says he taught his son to be mentally strong and how to take care of himself from a young age. "Things like checking in at airports, immigration, using apps, etc. Since my wife worked, I used to accompany him on some tournaments. Our younger son has special needs, so one of us always stays by his side to care for him," Ravikumar said.

It goes without saying that Chess Grandmasters have razor sharp focus and are not easily distracted, but in Ilamparthi's case, it is a case of wonder even for his parents. If you mention the names of superstars of Tamil Cinema, Ilamparthi was most likely to draw a blank until a year ago.

"Very recently, he learnt about Rajnikanth and Vijay. I am not sure he knows about others. I am guessing he learnt from his friends at the Chess academy," Ravikumar told DT Next.

The teenaged Grandmaster's teacher mother said that, as parents they had no role to play in Ilamparthi being focused on his goals. "We never restricted him. It is practically impossible. From a young age, he was interested only in sports, even as entertainment. He loves watching cricket and kabaddi on TV whenever he gets time off from his practice," Gayathri said.

As Ilamparthi started acing the age categories in national and Asian meets, the family felt that it is imperative that they start supporting him, but it was financially draining.

"To increase ratings, we have to play Grandmasters in tournaments abroad. There is tournament fee, travel and accommodation expenses, and over a period of time, they cost several lakhs. For most chess parents, this is the situation. That is the reason why some players start pursuing academics or other interests. In the last eight years, we spent about Rs 85 lakh, of which Rs 60 lakh was spent in the last four years on Ilamparthi’s international tournaments," Ravikumar said.

According to Ravikumar, sponsorships play an important role and with abundance of chess prospects, sponsors do not come by easily. "Even after becoming a Grandmaster, you have to achieve something to attract major sponsors. It is the case for most chess champions in India. Ilamparthi has had help from several quarters. There were CSR funds from some companies. There was support from Chessbase India. We have got good support in the last two years."

Ilamparthi, who began his chess training under V Ravichandran of Mount Chess Academy, has been training under Grandmaster and renowned chess trainer Shyam Sundar since 2022.

At Ilamparthi's family residence in Madipakkam, there are not enough shelves to accommodate all the medals and trophies the prodigy has won over the years. The taller trophies are placed on a rusty sewing machine.

Ravikumar's mother V Janaki is all praise for her grandchild and proudly shows around the trophies. She comes across a photograph of Ilamparthi from an international tournament and remarks, "He was hard-pressed for time. That's why he could not get a proper hair-cut."