India has reached a round number that chess followers once thought would take decades. On 10 November 2026, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Anuj Shrivatri on becoming India's 100th chess Grandmaster. In his post on X, the Prime Minister wrote that India is now home to a hundred Grandmasters, and called it a milestone that reflects the talent, dedication and hard work of the players and the growing popularity of chess among the youth.
News reports say Shrivatri, a 22-year-old International Master from Madhya Pradesh, secured the title on 8 November 2026, which was also Diwali. He won the 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open Chess Championship in Misamis Occidental, the Philippines, scoring 7 points from 9 rounds. He is described as the first Grandmaster from Madhya Pradesh. The Prime Minister's release itself names only the player and the milestone; the tournament details come from press reports.
The number 100 is a story of acceleration. India's first Grandmaster arrived in 1988. The 88th arrived in July 2025. The 100th arrived barely fifteen months later. This article explains what a Grandmaster is, how the title is earned, and how a country that gave the world the game became its most exciting chess nation.
What a Grandmaster is
Grandmaster (GM) is the highest title in chess that a player can earn through results, and it is conferred by FIDE, the international chess federation. FIDE, founded in 1924 in Paris, also runs the Chess Olympiad and the World Championship cycle. Its motto is Gens una sumus ("We are one people").
The title is separate from a player's rating. Ratings follow the Elo system, which FIDE adopted in 1970: every game moves a player's number up or down depending on the result and the opponent's strength. Titles, on the other hand, are for life once awarded.
The usual route to GM has two parts:
- A FIDE classical rating of 2500 at some point in the career. It does not have to be maintained afterwards.
- Three GM norms. A norm is a strong performance, generally equal to a rating of about 2600 over at least nine games, in an approved tournament against a field that includes several Grandmasters and players from different countries.
Below the GM sits the International Master (IM), which needs a rating of 2400 and three IM norms. Shrivatri held the IM title for years before this result. FIDE also awards titles directly for a few exceptional results, and the Prime Minister's note on the 2025 Women's World Cup winner, discussed below, is the best-known recent example. Women have their own titles as well, such as Woman Grandmaster (WGM), which are separate from the open GM title.
A note of caution on the reports: press accounts describe how Shrivatri's win delivered the title, but they do not list his norms or rating consistently. For exam purposes, what matters is the news, the number and the body that awards the title.
A hundred in numbers
Chess had only a sparse presence in India for most of the twentieth century. The figures below, from PIB and press reports, trace the climb.
| Milestone | Detail |
|---|---|
| 1st Grandmaster | Viswanathan Anand, 1988 |
| 2nd Grandmaster | Dibyendu Barua, 1991 (PIB) |
| 88th Grandmaster | Divya Deshmukh, July 2025; PIB says she was also the 4th Indian woman GM |
| 99th Grandmaster | VS Rathanvel, reported in July 2026 |
| 100th Grandmaster | Anuj Shrivatri, 8 November 2026 |
Twelve more Grandmasters, the 89th to the 100th, were added in roughly fifteen months, a pace that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Anand had to wait three years for a second Indian GM to join him, and the count rose slowly for a long time before the pace picked up sharply in recent years.
Anand and the first generation
Viswanathan Anand, born in Tamil Nadu, became India's first Grandmaster in 1988, and his rise changed what Indian children believed was possible. He went on to be a five-time World Champion, holding the undisputed title from 2007 to 2013. Many of today's stars trained at the academy he founded or took inspiration from his games. Reports say Anand was among those who congratulated Shrivatri.
Women's chess has its own pioneers. Koneru Humpy became a Grandmaster in 2002 at the age of 15, according to a PIB release, and stayed at the top for two decades. Divya Deshmukh, R Vaishali and others followed.
The recent highs that explain the surge
Several results since 2022 turned a growing movement into a national craze.
The 44th Chess Olympiad, Chennai, 2022. India hosted the Olympiad for the first time, from 28 July to 10 August 2022. The event began with a first-of-its-kind torch relay across 75 districts in 40 days, launched by the Prime Minister with Anand receiving the torch. Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said at the time that the torch for every future Olympiad would be lit from India.
The 45th Chess Olympiad, Budapest, 2024. India won gold in both the Open and Women's sections, a double that the Prime Minister called historic when he congratulated the team in September 2024. Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya later felicitated the medallists in New Delhi.
D Gukesh, December 2024. He defeated Ding Liren of China to become the youngest world chess champion in history, at the age of 18. The Prime Minister called the win historic and exemplary. Gukesh is described as the 18th World Chess Champion.
Divya Deshmukh, July 2025. At the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 in Batumi, Georgia, she beat Koneru Humpy in a tie-break in the first all-Indian final. She became the first Indian woman to win the Women's World Cup and the youngest ever winner, and she became a Grandmaster through the result. She was 19 and hails from Nagpur. PIB records that she was India's 88th Grandmaster.
Note how each result feeds the next. A World Cup, an Olympiad and a world title have given the country role models in the open and the women's sections at the same time, which is why the count of new Grandmasters rose so sharply from 2022.
Why India produces Grandmasters now
Press and official sources point to a mix of causes.
- Role models. Anand's generation made chess a respected career, and Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Divya now do the same for children aged six and seven.
- State support. Tamil Nadu hosted the 2022 Olympiad and has long been the cradle of Indian chess; Anand, R Praggnanandhaa, R Vaishali and VS Rathanvel all come from the state. Our NDA explainer on Praggnanandhaa's Norway Chess win tells the story of one of them.
- The All India Chess Federation (AICF) and many private tournaments give young players the games they need for norms. Shrivatri's own title came at an open event abroad, which shows how much of the route runs through events outside the country.
- Technology. Online platforms and chess engines let a player in a small town train against the world, and Shrivatri reportedly trained largely on his own because coaching was costly.
- Policy attention. The Union Government's sports push, including the 2026 sports policy discussed in our Khelo India explainer, has put mind sports alongside physical ones.
The geographic spread is the newest part. Madhya Pradesh now has its first Grandmaster; a decade ago, most Indian GMs came from a handful of states. The Prime Minister said he was particularly heartened to see young talent emerging from different parts of the country.
The origin of the game
Chess is a game with Indian roots. Its ancestor is Chaturanga, an Indian war game of around the sixth century CE whose four divisions (infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots) became the pawn, knight, bishop and rook. It travelled to Persia, then to the Arab world and Europe, where the modern rules took shape. The Sports Minister reminded the 2024 Olympiad winners that the game originated in India, and Rijiju made the same point in 2022. This history is the favourite static hook for general-knowledge questions on chess.
What the Armed Forces can take from the board
Chess has long been used in military thinking. It teaches planning several moves ahead, weighing sacrifice against position, and staying calm when a plan fails, which are the qualities an officer needs. The same ideas appear in the Services Selection Board assessment of planning and reasoning. For a candidate, the milestone is useful as an example of patient, systematic effort paying off over years.
🔑 Revision block
The news. 10 November 2026: PM congratulates Anuj Shrivatri on becoming India's 100th Grandmaster. Reports: age 22, from Madhya Pradesh (its first GM), title secured on 8 November 2026 with a win at the 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open, Misamis Occidental, Philippines, 7/9.
Counting. 1st GM Anand (1988); 2nd Dibyendu Barua (1991); 88th Divya Deshmukh (July 2025); 99th VS Rathanvel (July 2026); 100th Shrivatri. Twelve more GMs (89th to 100th) in about fifteen months.
The title. Awarded by FIDE (founded 1924, Paris). Usual route: rating 2500 + three GM norms (about 2600 performance, 9+ games). IM: 2400 + three IM norms. Titles are for life; direct awards exist.
Recent highs. 44th Olympiad Chennai 2022 (India hosts first time; torch relay); 45th Olympiad Budapest 2024: double gold; Gukesh, youngest world champion, December 2024, beat Ding Liren; Divya Deshmukh, Women's World Cup, Batumi, July 2025, beat Humpy.
Roots. Chaturanga (India) → Persia → Europe. Elo rating system adopted by FIDE in 1970.
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. The title of Grandmaster in chess is conferred by:
(a) The All India Chess Federation
(b) FIDE
(c) The International Olympic Committee
(d) The Sports Authority of India
→ (b)
FIDE, the international chess federation founded in 1924, awards titles. The AICF is the national body.
Q2. The usual requirement for the Grandmaster title is:
(a) A rating of 2300 and one norm
(b) A rating of 2400 and two norms
(c) A rating of 2600 and no norms
(d) A rating of 2500 at some point and three GM norms
→ (d)
The 2500 rating needs to be reached once, not maintained. Three GM norms of roughly 2600 performance are also needed. Option (b) is close to the IM route.
Q3. India's first chess Grandmaster was:
(a) Viswanathan Anand
(b) Dibyendu Barua
(c) Pentala Harikrishna
(d) Koneru Humpy
→ (a)
Anand became India's first GM in 1988. Barua was the second, in 1991.
Q4. The 45th Chess Olympiad, in which India won gold in both Open and Women's sections, was held in:
(a) Batumi
(b) Chennai
(c) Budapest
(d) Singapore
→ (c)
Budapest, 2024. Chennai hosted the 44th Olympiad in 2022, and Batumi hosted the 2025 Women's World Cup.
Q5. The 2025 FIDE Women's World Cup final was an all-Indian one between Divya Deshmukh and:
(a) Hou Yifan
(b) Tan Zhongyi
(c) R Vaishali
(d) Koneru Humpy
→ (d)
Divya beat Humpy in a tie-break, becoming the first Indian woman to win the event. Humpy had become a GM in 2002.
Q6. Anuj Shrivatri, India's 100th Grandmaster, comes from:
(a) Tamil Nadu
(b) Madhya Pradesh
(c) Maharashtra
(d) West Bengal
→ (b)
He is reported as the first Grandmaster from Madhya Pradesh.
Q7. Consider the following statements:
1. The torch relay held before the 44th Chess Olympiad in 2022 began in India.
2. The 44th Chess Olympiad was held in Budapest.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2
→ (a)
The 2022 torch relay was launched in New Delhi and ended at Mamallapuram, the Olympiad venue near Chennai. The 44th Olympiad was held in Chennai; Budapest hosted the 45th.
Q8. Divya Deshmukh became India's 88th Grandmaster in July 2025. How many more Indians have become Grandmasters since, up to and including Anuj Shrivatri?
(a) 8
(b) 10
(c) 12
(d) 14
→ (c)
100 − 88 = 12 players joined the list after the 88th, up to and including the 100th.
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
Sports questions in the general-knowledge paper are mostly about firsts, venues and bodies, and chess fits that mould.
The first pattern is the "who was the first" question: first Indian Grandmaster, first Indian woman to win a world title, youngest world champion. Options usually carry other famous players, so know Anand (1988), Humpy (2002) and Gukesh (2024) by date.
The second is venue and host: which city hosted which Olympiad. India hosting the 2022 event in Chennai and winning double gold in Budapest in 2024 are easy to swap. The third is bodies and terms: FIDE versus AICF, GM versus IM, norm versus rating. Fresh numbers for this cycle are 100 Grandmasters, 12 added since the 88th in July 2025 and the 2500 plus three norms rule.
Preparing for CDS? Make a one-page timeline of Indian chess firsts with dates; it covers most questions the examiner can ask. Revise the wider syllabus with our CDS/OTA study material. Follow the daily CDS current affairs, and learn with experienced faculty in the upcoming Cavalier courses in Delhi.
Source: PIB / Prime Minister's Office, "Prime Minister congratulates Anuj Shrivatri on becoming India's 100th Chess Grandmaster", 10 November 2026. Background from PIB releases of 20 June 2022 (Chess Olympiad torch relay), 23 and 26 September 2024 (45th Chess Olympiad), 12 December 2024 (Gukesh D), 29 July 2025 and 1 August 2025 (Divya Deshmukh, Women's World Cup). Details of Shrivatri's result, the Rathanvel title and the GM requirements are from press reports (The Week, GKToday, DT Next) and FIDE title rules.
✍️ Written by Maj Sunil Chopra — Veteran, Indian Army; defence-studies & current-affairs faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk.