Pendyala Harikrishna
Pentala Harikrishna (Telugu: పెంటేల హరికృష్ణ; born May 10, 1986) is a chess player from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India. Harikrishna became the youngest grandmaster from India in 2001. As of December 2012, he is the 2nd highest rated player in India after Viswanathan Anand, No. 5 in Asia and 48th in the world.
In November 2004, he won the World Junior Chess Championship. In August 2006, he won the Chess960 (Fischer Random) Junior Chess Championship, beating Arkadij Naiditsch 4.5–3.5 in the final.
As of early 2012, GM Harikrishna is playing first board for chess club Eppingen in Chess Bundesliga, and he is a member of Spanish chess club Solvay since 2007 (first board). Harikrishna is also the first board for BPCL A team, which has won PSPB Inter Unit Chess Tournaments in 2010 and 2011. In international team competition, Harikrishna has represented the Indian team in six Chess Olympiads since 2000.
In May 2011 he won the Asian Chess Championship. In January 2012 he won group B of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. This result qualifies him to participate in the A group in 2013, considered one of the strongest tournaments each year.
Away from chess, Harikrishna is majoring in political science, sociology, and public administration at DR. B. R. Ambedkar Open University (Andhra Pradesh Open University).
He is also employed at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. in Hyderabad from June 2010.
Read more about Pendyala Harikrishna: Notable Chess Games, Sample Game