Vaidyanathan Ravikumar (“Ravi” to his friends) was born in Paramakudi, Ramanathapuram, Tamil Nadu, India on Saturday, December 26th, 1959. On this day Nelson Rockefeller announced that he would not seek the Republican Party nomination for 1960.

Ravi credits his father N. Vaidyanathan for help with his early chess development.

In 1978 Ravi won the Asian Junior Championships in Tehran and was awarded the International Master title as a consequence. Ravi was India’s second International Master : Manuel Aaron was the first in 1961.

His earliest recorded game in Megabase 2020 was from the 3rd of September 1978 and was from the World Under-20 Championships in Graz, Austria. The event was won by Sergei Dolamatov and Ravi finished =25th on 6.5/13. The following year (Norway, 1979) Ravi improved to =12th with 7.5/13 and the title was won by Yasser Seirawan. James Plaskett was =3rd.

By now ( 1979) Ravi had graduated from The University of Madras with a degree in commerce and relocated to England seeking more playing opportunities. He played in his first Lloyd’s Bank Open in 1979.

Ravi made his first appearance for India in an Olympiad at Valetta, Malta 1980. In 1981 he was runner-up to Bjarke Sahl in the 6th North Sea Cup followed by a creditable equal 10th in the 68th British Championships at Morecambe won by Paul Littlewood. In round eight he played this attractive game against Daniel King. Notes by PC Griffiths :

[pgn]
[Event “British CF-68 Championship”]
[Site “Morecambe/ Lancashire”]
[Date “1981.08.11”]
[Round “8”]
[White “King, Daniel J”]
[Black “Ravikumar, Vaidyanathan”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “C06”]
[WhiteElo “2320”]
[BlackElo “2325”]
[Annotator “PC Griffiths & British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “84”]
[EventDate “1981.08.03”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “11”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “BCM, 1981, page 432.”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1998.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,84,26,16,41,46,23,50,2,12,-1,18,10,-5,-3,7,-1,-12,0,2,2,5,1,10,10,2,0,
25,55,4,21,36,50,-15,-2,-68,30,-17,-41,-34,-41,-33,-39,-43,-36,-43,-45,-39,-39,
-45,-16,-37,-23,-39,40,44,44,25,-36,-28,-33,-1,-1,-64,-48,-27,-27,-18,10,-304,
-291,-332,-292,-586,-427,-686,-317,-333,-322,-322,-104,-661,-662,-659,-671,
-670,-691]} 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 Nf6 4. e5 Nfd7 5. Ngf3 (5. Bd3 c5 6. c3
Nc6 7. Ne2 cxd4 8. cxd4 f6 9. exf6 Nxf6 10. Nf3 Bd6 11. O-O Qc7 12. Bg5 O-O 13.
Bh4 Nh5 14. Qc2 h6 15. Bh7+ Kh8 16. Bg6 Rxf3 17. Bxh5 Rf8 18. Bg3 Bd7 19. Rac1
{is, more or less the main line in 2020.}) 5… c5 6. c3 Nc6 7. Bd3 Qb6 8. O-O
{There is in any case no convenient way to defend the d-pawn again; if White
does not wish to play a gambit here, 5. Ne2 and later Ndf3 is the normal
method.} cxd4 9. cxd4 Nxd4 10. Nxd4 Qxd4 11. Nf3 Qb6 12. Qa4 {One of White’s
intentions with his twelfth move is in some circumstances to switch the queen
to g4, though on the whole the main danger to Black comes on the queenside in
this variaton.} a6 ({Another common move here is} 12… Qb4 13. Qc2 Qc5 14. Qe2
Be7) 13. a3 h6 ({More common is} 13… Qc6 14. Qg4 g6) 14. b4 $6 $146 (14. Be3
$1 Qxb2 $4 15. Bd4 b5 16. Qd1 Qxa3 17. Rxa3 Bxa3 $18) 14… Be7 15. Be3 Qd8 16.
Bd4 O-O 17. Rfe1 Re8 18. Rad1 Nf8 19. Qb3 Bd7 20. a4 Rc8 21. Re2 b5 {[#]} {
Not easy to tell where White goes wrong in this game; his position still
lookes quite good, yet he is unable to penetrate Black’s fortress anywhere.
Perhaps he should have tried to occupy the c-file earlier?} 22. a5 Qc7 23. Qb2
Qb7 24. Nd2 Rc6 25. Qa3 {[#]} Rc4 $1 {For the exchange he will get a strong
passed pawn, play on the long white diagonal and useful targets in the white b
and e pawns.} 26. Bxc4 (26. Nxc4 bxc4 {would cost a second pawn at once.})
26… dxc4 27. Ne4 Ng6 28. Qg3 {A king-side attack would seem the best chance.
Nf4 and then Nd3 can scarcely be permitted.} ({but if} 28. g3 Bc6 29. Rde1 Rd8
{things just get worse.}) 28… Bxb4 29. Bc5 Bxa5 30. h4 h5 31. Qg5 Bc6 $2 {
and now it is Black’s turn to go astray…} (31… c3 {was correct}) 32. Nf6+
$1 gxf6 33. exf6 $18 Bc3 {[#]} 34. Bd4 $2 (34. Rd4 $3 {and Stockfish 12
excitedly announces mate in 13.}) 34… Bb4 $19 35. Qxh5 Bxg2 $19 (35… Rd8)
36. Qg5 $2 Qf3 $1 37. h5 Bh3 $2 (37… Bd6) 38. hxg6 $18 Qg4+ 39. Qxg4 Bxg4 40.
Re4 $4 {the final blunder after a roller coaster ride…} (40. f3 $1 Bxf3 41.
Rh2 Be4 42. g7 Bh7 43. Kg2 $18) 40… Bxd1 $19 41. g7 Bc2 42. Rh4 Bh7 {and
white resigned} 0-1
[/pgn]

In 1982 Ravi scored a creditable =3rd at the 1982 British Championships (Mile’s year) in Torquay including wins over Basman, Muir and Plaskett :

1983 included an excellent win over James Tarjan at the Lloyds Bank Open but Danny King got revenge for his 1981 defeat!

[pgn]
[Event “Lloyds Bank op 07th”]
[Site “London”]
[Date “1983.08.29”]
[Round “6”]
[White “Tarjan, James Edward”]
[Black “Ravikumar, Vaidyanathan”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “E71”]
[WhiteElo “2535”]
[BlackElo “2400”]
[Annotator “British Chess News”]
[PlyCount “118”]
[EventDate “1983.08.24”]
[EventType “swiss”]
[EventRounds “9”]
[EventCountry “ENG”]
[SourceTitle “EXT 2000”]
[Source “ChessBase”]
[SourceDate “1999.11.16”]
[SourceVersion “1”]
[SourceVersionDate “1999.11.16”]
[SourceQuality “1”]

{[%evp 0,118,19,31,14,-14,31,41,60,47,41,45,40,30,27,44,62,50,54,58,55,36,66,
66,70,67,76,76,81,80,153,87,183,7,0,-91,-66,-71,-77,-85,-85,-73,-85,-79,-85,
-110,-95,-115,-130,-143,-151,-177,-175,-183,-180,-177,-189,-179,-181,-174,-159,
-176,-164,-222,-222,-222,-222,-222,-230,-215,-212,-205,-241,-251,-209,-228,
-220,-228,-239,-237,-205,-216,-222,-234,-239,-251,-221,-238,-238,-272,-376,
-394,-398,-396,-314,-324,-306,-325,-316,-323,-393,-415,-395,-433,-249,-292,
-325,-334,-341,-342,-348,-385,-388,-394,-394,-422,-420,-420,-431,-431,-431]} 1.
d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 d6 4. Nc3 g6 5. e4 Bg7 6. Bd3 O-O 7. h3 (7. Nge2) 7… a6
{third most popular after 7…e6} (7… e6 8. Nf3 exd5 9. exd5) 8. a4 e5 9.
Nge2 b6 10. Bg5 h6 11. Be3 Kh7 $146 12. Qd2 Nbd7 13. f3 Nh5 14. h4 Ra7 15. g3
$16 f5 {[#]} 16. O-O-O $6 {Sgt. Wilson would probably ask if long castling was
“wise” before preventing f4.} (16. exf5 gxf5 17. O-O-O $14) 16… f4 $1 $17 17.
Bf2 fxg3 18. Nxg3 Nxg3 19. Bxg3 Rxf3 20. Qg2 Rf8 21. Rdg1 $19 {Optically this
appears encouraging for White but Black has it all under control.} Qe8 (21…
h5) 22. Be1 Nf6 23. Be2 Nh5 24. Qh2 Nf4 25. h5 g5 26. Kc2 Nxe2 27. Qxe2 Raf7
28. Rg3 Rf4 29. b3 Qf7 30. Qg2 Rf1 31. a5 bxa5 32. Na4 Rxh1 33. Qxh1 Qf4 34.
Qg2 Bd7 35. Nb6 Be8 36. Rh3 a4 37. bxa4 Qf1 38. Qxf1 Rxf1 39. Kd2 g4 40. Rh2
Rf4 41. Nc8 Bf8 42. Bg3 Rf3 43. Bh4 Bxh5 {[#]} 44. Be7 $2 (44. Rf2) 44… g3 $1
$19 45. Rh1 (45. Rxh5 g2 46. Ke2 Rg3 {is crushing.}) 45… Rf2+ {Black now
shows good technique is wrapping this game up.} 46. Ke3 Re2+ 47. Kd3 g2 48. Rg1
Bxe7 49. Nxe7 Bf3 50. Nf5 Rxe4 51. Nxd6 Rh4 52. Ke3 Rh1 53. Kf2 Kg6 54. Nb7 e4
55. Rxg2+ Bxg2 56. Kxg2 Rc1 57. d6 Rd1 58. Nxc5 Rxd6 59. Nxe4 Rd4 {A great win
from Ravi against a strong GM.} 0-1
[/pgn]

Ravi’s second Olympiad appearance for India came at Thessaloniki, Greece in 1984. This year provided Ravi’s highest FIDE rating of 2415 in January.

Ravi continued to be active as a player until 2000 when he started a career in coaching. He was the National Coach of the Emirates for eight years and has accompanied the ECF junior chess team to World Youth Chess Championships in 2014, held in Al Ain, UAE.

According to Spectrum Chess Calculation : “He is an experienced chess coach and provides chess coaching in 10 schools in Hertfordshire”

His first book was Karpov’s Best Games, Chess Check, 1984.

Following that Ravi wrote a biographical work on Ulf Andersson :

and then

followed by

and most recently

There were also works on Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman as well as works on the Caro-Kann Defence.

Ravi is also India’s first vegan IM!