Sleepless nights, depressing times, and then a Grandmaster: Making of Rathanvel VS

NEW DELHI: Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, felt as though the wait was almost over. Nearly a decade after the end of the ten-year Trojan War, he and his crew were finally within reach of home, only to find themselves on the verge of losing all hope of ever returning. "All my comrades were killed, and I alone was left," a depleted Odysseus says at one point in Homer's ancient Greek epic The Odyssey. But, even in his darkest moments of despair and doubt, he never abandons his longing to see Ithaca again.Rathanvel VS, like Odysseus, felt as if he was in touching distance of his destiny, the elusive Grandmaster (GM) title in this case, only to see it slipping away time and again. "I could have probably become a Grandmaster four years ago," he told TimesofIndia.com during an exclusive interview. He didn't have to wait for norms.