Harikrishnan A Ra Height, Age, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Harikrishnan A Ra

• Harikrishnan A Ra hails from Ambattur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

• Harikrishnan started playing chess at the age of 5.

• In an interview, Hari mentioned that he was inspired by his elder brother, R. Venkatakrishnan, for chess, who is also an Elo-rated player.

• His parents also play chess, although they are not in international contests.

• At the age of 7, Harikrishnan gained his first victory by winning the title of Tamil Nadu Under 7 in the 2008-09 season. In that same year, he participated in the National Under-7 tournament in Nagpur and became India’s youngest Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE)-rated player.
  

  Harikrishnan A Ra’s childhood picture

• In 2009, at the age of 8, Hari gained an Elo rating of 1519.

• In 2012, Hari won his first title in the King Chess Foundation KCF FIDE rating tournament (Below 1800).

• At the age of 13, Harikrishnan started training under Mr. A.L.Kasi at T.Nagar Chess Academy, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, who helped him boost his Elo rating to 2000+.

• In 2015, Harikrishnan joined Viyugam Chess Academy, Perambur, Chennai, where he was trained under the guidance of Surendran, Sekar, Lokesh and R A Pradeep Kumar (all 2100+ Fide rated players). During this period, he achieved his first IM norm at the Kolkata GM Tournament 2015 and raised his rating to 2386.

• In early 2016, he lost 262 Elo points and his rating fell from 2386 to 2124.

• Later in the same year, he began training with K. Visweswaran, who stood as a pillar of support for his success and helped him come out of his low. Under his guidance, in 2016, Harikrishnan earned not just his second IM norm but also his third and fourth as well.

• In 2017, he appeared for the 10th Board examination and cleared the exam with 92%.

• In 2018, at the age of 17, Harikrishnan joined the ChessBase India Tour to play in the Catalan circuit, where he earned his fifth and sixth (final) IM norms. Also, he crossed the 2400+ rating to become an International Master.

• After gaining the IM title, Hari competed in many tournaments in his quest to become a Grandmaster.

• In August 2019, Harikrishnan played his remarkable game against Wei Yi, a Chinese chess grandmaster. Hari made his win against Wei Yi in this game and entered the list of top 20 players in the world.

• In late 2019, he concentrated more on his studies and cleared his 12th Board examination in 2020 with 87% (scoring 99% in accountancy).

• During his school days, Harikrishnan was part of the Tamil Nadu Team winning Gold in 2016, Silver in 2013, 2014 and 2017 in the respective School Games Federation of India (SGFI) Tournaments

• In 2020, during the COVID-19 Pandemic, he started his Grand Master (GM) preparations and played a lot of online tournaments and games regularly.

• In 2021, he secured fourth place in the National Senior Chess Championship (Online), where he performed with many Indian GMs and IMs. Additionally, he was a member of the Indian team that won a gold medal in the Asian University Championship.

• Since 2022, Hari has been a certified FIDE Trainer (FT).

• In 2023, he gained his first GM norms at the Biel Chess Masters, Switzerland.
  

  Harikrishnan A Ra with his first GM-norm certificate at the 56th Biel Chess Festival Master Tournament 2023

• In 2024, at the 2nd Noisiel Blitz Rating Open tournament in France, he won all nine of his games, performed at 2938 and gained 26.8 Elo rating points.
  

  Harikrishnan A Ra at the 2nd Noisiel Blitz Rating Open tournament in France

• At the Ljubljana Chess Festival 2024, in Spain, Hari gained his second GM norm.
  

  Harikrishnan A Ra at the Ljubljana Chess Festival 2024, holding his second GM norm certificate

• On 11 July 2025, at the La Plagne International Chess Festival in France, he secured his third GM norm and became India’s 87th GM. After his victory, in an interview, Harikrishnan mentioned that,

Feel very happy. It’s been seven years. I agree there was a huge delay to become a GM. From 2022, I have been competing regularly in tournaments, but couldn’t get the GM norms. It was really a struggle,”

Harikrishnan A Ra with his third GM-norm certificate

• To get himself close to the coveted GM title, Harikrishnan won an extremely complex endgame against GM Jules Moussard (FRA, 2591) in the penultimate round.

• Following his victory at the La Plagne International Chess Festival, Harikrishnan A. Ra didn’t return to his hometown and has been participating in several tournaments in Spain and Portugal. In an interview, he mentioned that he wants to continue playing until he achieves an Elo rating of 2600.

• For the past few years, Harikrishnan has been working with his mentor, GM Shyam Sundar M, at his academy, Chess Thulir in Chennai.