Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan, who recently became Kerala’s second and India’s 40th Grandmaster in chess, is constantly pushing the envelope. The 17-year-old from Thiruvananthapuram has set-out on a mission to etch his name in the top 100 world rankings, within the next three years.
Narayanan is also the youngest from the State to achieve the prestigious title, closely followed by G N Gopal, who did so at the age of 18. “It was great to finally get the Grandmaster norm which has been eluding me for quite some time. There is relief as well as satisfaction,” the chess prodigy said.
A twelfth standard student at St Mary’s Higher Secondary School in Pattom, Kerala, Narayanan now hopes to bring home the ‘super’ Grandmaster title.
“Though it is an unofficial title, I would like to improve my Elo ratings and work it up to 2,700, which will lay the path for stepping into the world top 100 chess players,” said a young and aspiring Narayanan.
He achieved the stipulated 2,500 Elo rating mark which was the third and final norm for the title after an impressive show at the Philippines international Open in November. At Olongapo City, Narayanan defeated Chinese GM Lu Shanglei and then toppled Filipino GM Antonio Rogelio Jr to win his own GM title.
“If I keep working hard, I think I can achieve it in the next three years,” he said. The boy genius was introduced to the game of Chess by his mother Lyna, at the age of eight, when she took him to a chess tournament at her office.
He fell in love with the game instantly and thereafter was coached by P Sreekumar, a former state champion. Narayanan has won silver at the 2010 Commonwealth Chess Championship (under-12), bronze at the 40th Chess Olympiad (under-16) in 2012 and gold at the 44th National Junior Open Chess Championship (under-19) in 2014. He is now being trained by Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay and also receives online lessons from a coach abroad.