Aravindh Chithambaram wins Prague Masters 2025 over stacked field including good friend Praggnanandhaa

Pawns are perhaps the most overlooked piece on a chessboard, but at the same time, they are one of the most vital cogs in the game. The driving force, which helps gain control of the central squares in the opening, is always the first line of defence in the game of 64 squares. It helps in piece development, makes way for opening up squares for much more ‘important pieces,’ and ultimately, never shies away from being sacrificed for the greater good. It moves only one square at a time (two squares only for the first time), but the moment it breaks its shackles and runs away with single-minded focus, the world is his to conquer, inside the chessboard and outside of it.Aravindh Chithambaram, or pawnof64squares as he likes to call himself, is the ideal personification of the ‘smallest piece with the biggest potential’ in this game.
Born in Madurai, and raised a single mother after the demise of his father when he was only three, Aravindh knew he had to put on a fight wherever he went. But unlike others, he had his own way of doing it.
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Like thousands of others, his first love was cricket but it was only after the inclination of his grandfather that he took a serious interest in chess.
A fantastic coach in GM R.B. Ramesh made him and his family move to the chess capital of India, Chennai and he never looked back. In 2013, the first tournament he played in the city had a bigger backdrop. Viswanathan Anand was defending his title against Magnus Carlsen and only a FIDE Master at that time, Aravindh beat four Grandmasters to win the Chennai GM Open.
For a kid with his potential, Aravindh’s career never took off the way many had been predicting. After becoming a Grandmaster, Aravindh always flew under the radar. But it was 2024 when things started to change.
“There are times when he will feel low in confidence so that used to drag him down a lot. He doesn’t have that inner turmoil anymore, it is better now. He used to feel a lack of confidence in himself. He was stuck around the 2640 rating level for a long time,” Ramesh had said to the Indian Express in 2024 after Aravindh won the Chennai Grandmasters ahead of big names like Arjun Erigaisi, Levon Aronian, Vidit Gujrathi and Parham Maghsoodloo.Story continues below this ad
He is also the first Indian to hold the crown of National champion in all three formats of the sport. He won the National Rapid and Blitz titles in 2019 before claiming the National Open Senior title (Classical format) in 2018.
In 2019, he went on to defend his Senior title in Majitar, Sikkim and joined the l of a handful of players who defended their National titles like Manuel Aaron, Praveen Thipsay, Anand, Devaki V. Prasad, Krishnan Sasikiran, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and his good friend Karthikeyan Murali.
A pessim nature who likes to question his moves and whose primary aim was to not finish last at the Chennai Grandmaster 2024, who was out of the world’s top 100 just at the start of last year to seeing himself ahead of the five-time world champion, Anand, at 14th in live rating, Aravindh’s stature has grown from being yet another 2600 player to a serious contender of Super GM (2750-plus rated).
“These days he’s feeling more certain about himself. When you feel calm inside, in your mind, things work out better for you. In the last one year, he has been very consent, gradually increasing his rating, crossing 2,700, which was a very important milestone. Then he started accelerating, and now he’s close to 2720, which is very good. This tournament he played in is a rare invitation he got to play in a closed tournament with an elite field. But thanks to this win, most likely, he’ll start getting invitations to play more closed tournaments in the future. I think that will drastically change his graph. Now he’ll be feeling that I belong to this group of players. I’m good enough,” said Ramesh.Story continues below this ad
Ramesh’s prediction stood true after Aravindh won the Prague Masters 2025 on Friday. Unbeaten throughout the tournament, he beat Vincent Keymer, Wei Yi and Anish Giri to finish on top.
“I don’t know what is happening with my life,” a shell-shocked Aravindh told Chessbase India after his win over Wei. Things were moving fast for Aravindh.
At the Chess Gurukul under coach Ramesh, Aravindh shared a close bond with two friends, R. Praggnanandhaa and Karthikeyan. During the Prague Masters, Aravindh faced a challenge from one of them — Praggnanandhaa.
In the fifth round, the 25-year-old went head-to-head with Praggnanandhaa, both tied for the tournament lead with 3.0/4 points. Praggnanandhaa was riding high after two consecutive victories against Thai Dai Van Nguyen and Keymer. Before the match, Aravindh, seated across from Praggnanandhaa, greeted his friend with a broad smile and enthusiastic applause as Praggnanandhaa received an award for having the best game of the previous day in round four.Story continues below this ad
Off the board, they were friends, but on the board, they transformed into fierce competitors, leaving no room for camaraderie as they battled to a hard-fought draw.
Once an underconfident individual, Aravindh has now blossomed into a top-tier performer, embracing a life of profound change. And like second world champion Emanuel Lasker had said, “Chess is, above all, a fight. No matter how you define it, the point is to win.” Aravindh knows how to fight and certainly knows how to win.