Rathnakaran hopes to turn the clock back

The Kerala-born Railway player has played in seven Premier Nationals and that second place is still etched in his memory for that was the year the 36-yearold was playing his best chess. Rathnakaran has two Grandmaster norms under his belt and he has not lost hope to get his third and complete the title requirements. 

Though age and rating are not on his side, he believes he can reach his target provided he gets his act together. 

“I am now posted in Kannur. I have a couple of good results in the last two months and that took me from 2307 to 2372,” says Rathnakaran, whose best rating was 2488.

Rathnakaran has another link with Chennai and Tamil Nadu. He started working with Chennai-based International Master V Saravanan in his pursuit of GM title. The project went on for close to three years. 

“S Nitin was also working with Saravanan and we had sessions both in Chennai and Salem at Nitin’s house. Apart from that, we also did it together via skype,” recalls Rathnakaran. The Kerala player had two more top-six finishes in the Premier National, at Mangalore (2009) and Thiruvarur (2015). 

“Those top finishes gave me many exposure trips to Canada, Europe and US. I came third in the Asian Zonal Championship in Delhi in 2009 but somehow I missed many GM norms narrowly,” says Rathnakaran, currently playing in the Chennai Open Tournament. 

Apart from the Nationals, he had good results in the World Railway Championship four times. Twice he won the gold medal and once the silver. He feels he can still come back with good performances to put the clock back.