GM Aravindh Chithambaram‘s fast rise to the highest echelons in chess continued last week in Jermuk, Armenia, where the 25-year-old Indian grandmaster edged out GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu on tiebreaks to win the Stepan Avagyan Memorial. Aravindh is now ninth in the world on the live ratings and moved up to second place in the 2025 FIDE Circuit.
It still feels a bit like he came out of nowhere, but Aravindh is certainly a name that cannot be ignored anymore. As one of the biggest talents of his generation (e.g. capping the GM title aged 15 a decade ago), he slowed down for several years but now, at age 25, he can call himself a world top-10 player.
Aravindh’s steady progress in 2024 (going from 2662 in January to 2718 in December) got a further boost in early March of this year with his win at the Prague Masters. Combined with two wins in the German League, he gained 18 rating points and moved up to 11th place in the world rankings.
Last week, he did well in another tournament where classical chess was played. Gaining a further 8.8 points at the Stepan Avagyan Memorial, Aravindh is now a top-10 player for the first time in his career.
A storyline that will get more and more relevant as the year progresses is the 2025 FIDE Circuit. Thanks to his result in Jermuk, Aravindh moved up to second place behind Praggnanandhaa, incidentally the player he tied for first place in the tournament.
Stepan Avagyan Memorial 2025 | Final Standings
The tournament was a 10-player all-play-all, held for the sixth time in Jermuk, a mountain spa town in southern Armenia. Last year, it was the theater for another Indian player showing great progress: GM Arjun Erigaisi. This year, it was Aravindh’s turn to shine, alongside the younger but much better known Praggnanandhaa.
Both scored an undefeated 6.5/9, with four wins and five draws. Aravindh had the better tiebreak and earned $7,993 for first place, while Praggnanandhaa took home $4,770 for finishing second. The two had started the tournament with a quick draw against each other.
A memorable finish to the #StepanAvagyanMemorial 2025
Ended the classical event tied for first with 6.5/9 alongside Aravindh Chithambaram anna. Congrats to Aravindh anna on winning the title on tiebreaks – well deserved! pic.twitter.com/RPg9acnHNp
— Praggnanandhaa (@rpraggnachess) June 7, 2025
Aravindh’s first win, in round three, was a quick one. He showed better understanding than his opponent in a sharp line of the Nimzo-Indian:
One of Praggnanandhaa’s wins was also a Nimzo-Indian. The Indian player was white and gradually outplayed GM Benjamin Gledura, but the engine showed that the Hungarian player was given one chance during time trouble, which he missed:
Aravindh and Praggnanandhaa’s shared first place in Jermuk was not surprising as the two grandmasters were the only ones with a 2700+ rating. For Aravindh, however, it will forever be a memorable event as it was there where he broke into the world top 10. It will be interesting to see whether he’ll rise even further up the ranks.
The Stepan Avagyan Memorial took place from May 29 to June 6 at the “Jermuk Ashkarh” Health Center in Jermuk, Armenia. It was a 10-player round-robin. The time control was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment starting from move one.
