Rahul has been learning chess since the age of seven, being guided by his father on how to play the game. He began to attend tournaments and later, his father consulted Gangaraju Muralikrishna, a well-known chess coach in India. He immediately began improving, going on to finish fourth in the National Under-09 tournament in 2011, win a bronze medal after performing well in the Asian Youth Chess Championships 2012 Under 10 Open, and finish second in the National Under-11 tournament. His next coach when he was rated 1700 would be Narahari Ramaraju, who helped him fine-tune his skills, especially in the opening. In August 2017, he participated in the
Riga Technical University Open in Latvia, winning his first IM norm. Later in December of the same year, he achieved his second IM norm at the Groningen Chess Festival. He earned his fourth norm when he placed a tied first place (after tiebreakers, second place) against GM
Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara at the 2021 US Masters Championship, when he got 7/9 points, also earning $3,750 in prize money. Rahul finally reached the required 2500 elo rating to become a grandmaster after participating in the 9th Cattolica Chess Festival in 2022 in Italy. He earned his GM title from
FIDE in 2022 at 19-years-old after this win. In 2021, he applied to the
University of Texas at Dallas to study economics after earning a full scholarship and participates in the college's chess team, with the college covering his tournament expenses, according to an interview. He learns from the university's team coach, GM
Julio Sadorra, and is personally coached by GM
Sipke Ernst. In the 2023 Texas State Championship, he got second place after getting 5.5/7 points during the tournament. In November 2023, he participated in a club match between the Marshall Chess Club and the Texas Chess Center, playing on behalf of the Texas Chess Center. He played alongside other titled players such as NM Nelson Lopez and WGM
Anastasya Paramzina and played against GM
Aleksandr Lenderman. He lost 3 matches against Aleksandr and drew one match, and the Marshall Chess Club won the tournament. == Education ==