Aravindh Chithambaram is rated by India’s most successful chess coach R.B. Ramesh as the country’s most talented player since Viswanathan Anand. He began well enough, and came up with some incredible performances, but, later on, was overshadowed by a bunch of other Indian prodigies that took world chess by storm. Over the last couple of years, Aravindh has finally shown what he is capable of: last year, he rose to World No. 11. There is time still for the 26-year-old to do even better. Excerpts from an interview:You finished runner-up at the Prague Chess Festival earlier this year. You had won that event in 2025. That was one of the best performances of your career…The victory at Prague will remain super special for me. It was such a strong tournament, with players like Anish Giri, Vincent Keymer, Wei Yi and R. Praggnanandhaa. There is this award for the best game in every round, and I wanted to get it even more than the victory. And I finally got the award for the best game of the tournament — for the one against Anish. I was close to winning the title at Prague this year, too. The standard of my chess was actually good this time as well.You recently became the first Indian to qualify for this year’s Esports World Cup, to be held in Paris in August.Esports is a huge opportunity for all the professional players like me. Events like these are important for players who make a living out of chess. I am happy that chess is also now part of the Esports community. It is getting bigger and bigger, and it is nice to see that. Over the last two years, I have been trying to focus both on over-the-board tournaments and online events. And I am glad that I have been able to do it.