IM Harikrishnan A Ra became the 87th Indian to achieve the Grandmaster title on Friday 11th July 2025 at 5th La Plagne Masters 2025. A draw against the reigning National Rapid 2025 champion, GM Iniyan Pa in the final round secured his final GM-norm.
IM Harikrishnan A Ra with his maiden GM-norm certificate at 56th Biel Chess Festival Master Tournament (MTO)
Harikrishnan earned his first GM-norm in July 2023 at 56th Biel Chess Festival Master Tournament (MTO) 2023. Nearly two years later, he scored his second GM-norm at Lince Andújar Open 2025 in Andújar, Spain. Before that, in June 2024, he got a published rating of 2502. The Grandmaster title has always been an inevitability for him. There was never a question of if, it was always when he will fulfill the GM title requirements. Check out the journey of the talented boy from Chennai.
Final two GM-norms in consecutive tournaments 15 days
Harikrishnan A Ra loves to play a lot of tournaments in his trip to Europe. That is probably one of the many reasons he has won a total of nearly two dozen tournaments including Classical, Rapid and Blitz tournaments, eight of them were in seven different countries outside of India since 2021. Most of them have been reported on our newspage. We cannot wait to see him conquer more tournaments in various formats and countries across the world. Harikrishnan is training with GM Shyam Sundar M at his academy, Chess Thulir for the past few years and also at Chola Chess from the beginning of this year.
First GM-norm: 56th Biel Chess Festival Master Tournament (MTO) 2023
Harikrishnan earned his first GM-norm at 56th Biel Chess Festival Master Tournament (MTO) in July 2023 in Biel, Switzerland. He scored 6/10 to earn his first GM-norm, including wins against GM Nikita Meshkovs (LAT), GM Daniil Yuffa (ESP), draws against GM Pranav Anand, GM Luis Ernesto Quesada Perez (CUB), GM Ngoc Truong Son Nguyen (VIE) and GM Carlos Daniel Albornoz Cabrera (CUB).