Ramachandran Ramesh Wiki, Height, Age, Wife, Family, Biography & More

Ramachandran Ramesh is an Indian Chess Grandmaster. In 2002, he won the British Championship, and in 2007, he won the Commonwealth Championship. He is known for his commentary in the World Chess Championship Match 2013. He is known by his nicknames R.B. Ramesh and Master Shifu.

Wiki/Biography

Ramachandran Ramesh was born on Tuesday, 20 April 1976 (age 47 years; as of 2023) in Chennai, India. His zodiac sign is Taurus. He completed his schooling at Shrine Vailankanni Senior Secondary School, Chennai, in 1992. He pursued his graduation at the University of Madras, Chennai.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 9″

Hair Colour: Grey

Eye Colour: Black

Family

Ramachandran Ramesh belongs to a Brahmin family in Chennai, India.

Parents & Siblings

There is not much information about Ramachandran Ramesh’s parents.

Wife & Children

Ramachandran Ramesh got married to Chess Grandmaster Aarthie Ramaswamy on 29 August 2003. They have two children, a daughter named Varsha, and a son named Karthik.

Religion

Ramachandran Ramesh follows Hinduism.

Signature

Career

Chess

Inspired by the success of Indian chess player Viswanathan Anand, Ramesh started playing chess at the age of 12. During his career as a professional chess player, he earned several titles including FIDE Master (FM) in 1995 and International Master (IM) in 1996. In 1996, he was also a part of the Indian chess team. As a professional chess player, he won many chess tournaments like the British Championship in 2002 and the Commonwealth Championship in 2007. In 2004, he became the grandmaster, a title given to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. He holds a world ranking of 1218.

In 1998, Ramesh started teaching younger students to play chess and helping them win championships. According to him, Aarthie Ramaswamy was his first student. At the age of 22, the All India Chess Federation (AICF) asked Ramesh to accompany the Indian Junior team at the Asian Junior Championship in Iran. Ramesh’s wife, Aarthie, was part of the team. Upon returning, Aarthie’s parents requested Ramesh to help Aarthie in practising chess as at the time there was no formal chess coaching or tutors. For a year, they played chess together, and later, Aarthie won the World Under 18 championship, which gained a lot of media attention and brought many new young players to seek coaching from Ramesh. After that, he started working with many players privately at his home. According to him, 90 percent of the players he worked with initially gained international recognition as a chess player which further motivated him to start teaching chess professionally and become a mentor.

In 2008, he quit his job at Indian Oil Corporation and left his playing career to start Chess Gurukul, a Chess academy, in T. Nagar, Chennai. Since then, Chess Gurukul has produced many Indian world chess champions, such as R Praggnanandhaa and Bharath Subramaniyam, who in 2019 at the age of 11 years and 8 months, achieved the title of International master. At the World Youth 2015, India earned five gold medals with all of the winners from Chess Gurukul Academy.

Ramesh gained international attention for his official commentary during the 2013 Anand vs. Carlsen World Chess Championship match, co-starring Susan Polgar.

Writer

In September 2021, he published his first book, Fundamental Chess: Logical Decision Making. In his book, he included tips on how to use logical reasoning to guide decision-making.

In May 2022, he published his second book titled Improve Your Chess Calculation: The Ramesh Chess Course – Volume 1.

Awards

• In January 2024, he was awarded the Dronacharya Award in chess.

  Ramachandran Ramesh receiving the Dronacharya Award from the President of India Droupadi Murmu

• In 2022, he won the Best New Author Award 2022 by Chessable.

• In 2022, he won the Book of the Year Award for his book Improve Your Chess Calculation.

• In June 2022, he was awarded the “Talent Creator Award” by the Sri Chandrasekhrendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya University.

  Ramachandran Ramesh (second from right) receiving the award at the Sri Chandrasekhrendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya University

• In November 2022, he won the Sports Coach of the Year Award 2022 from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry in New Delhi.

  A picture of Ramachandran Ramesh’s award

• In January 2020, Ramesh was awarded the Coach of the Year award by The Sportstar in Mumbai.

  Ramachandran Ramesh (second from left) was awarded the Coach of the Year Award in Mumbai in 2020

• In August 2018, he received the Champions of Chennai award by the KSA in Chennai.

Facts/Trivia

• He is also known as the Pep Guardiola of chess.

• Ramachandran Ramesh is a dog lover.

  Ramachandran Ramesh with a dog

• His favourite actor is Sivakarthikeyan.