India now has 100 chess Grandmasters. On November 8, 2026, Anuj Shrivatri of Katni, Madhya Pradesh, became India’s 100th Grandmaster when he won the 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open Chess Championship in Ozamiz City, Philippines. As a result, that win earned him the title under FIDE’s direct-title rules.
He lost his first game. However, he then scored 7 points from his last 8 games. In the end, he finished on 7/9, half a point ahead of Vietnam’s GM Nguyen Duc Hoa.
The 22-year-old 100th Grandmaster is also the first Grandmaster from Madhya Pradesh. As a result, Madhya Pradesh is now the 14th Indian state with a GM.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it a century for Indian chess. Meanwhile, Viswanathan Anand, India’s first GM, welcomed it as “a cracker of a 100”.
In total, it took India 38 years to go from its first to its 100th Grandmaster. Anand earned the first title in 1988. Since 2018, however, India has added 50 more. For more background, you can also read our earlier story on India’s 99 Grandmasters.
Quick Facts About India’s 100th Grandmaster
| Total Indian Grandmasters | 100 |
| First GM | Viswanathan Anand, Tamil Nadu (1988) |
| 100th GM | Anuj Shrivatri, Madhya Pradesh (November 8, 2026) |
| Event that sealed No. 100 | 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open, Ozamiz City, Philippines |
| State with the most GMs | Tamil Nadu (39) |
| States with a GM | 14 |
| GMs added in 2026 | 9 (No. 92 to No. 100) |
| First woman GM (open title) | Koneru Humpy (2002) |
Complete List of India’s 100 Grandmasters
Below are all 100 Indian Grandmasters in the order they earned the title, with home state and year. For easier reading, we have split the list by era.
1988–1999: The First Three Grandmasters
| No. | Grandmaster | State | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Viswanathan Anand | Tamil Nadu | 1988 |
| 2 | Dibyendu Barua | West Bengal | 1991 |
| 3 | Pravin Thipsay | Maharashtra | 1997 |
2000–2010: Grandmasters No. 4 to 23
| No. | Grandmaster | State | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Abhijit Kunte | Maharashtra | 2000 |
| 5 | Krishnan Sasikiran | Tamil Nadu | 2000 |
| 6 | Pentala Harikrishna | Andhra Pradesh | 2001 |
| 7 | Koneru Humpy | Andhra Pradesh | 2002 |
| 8 | Surya Shekhar Ganguly | West Bengal | 2003 |
| 9 | Sandipan Chanda | West Bengal | 2003 |
| 10 | R. Ramesh | Tamil Nadu | 2003 |
| 11 | Tejas Bakre | Gujarat | 2004 |
| 12 | Magesh Chandran P. | Tamil Nadu | 2006 |
| 13 | J. Deepan Chakkravarthy | Tamil Nadu | 2006 |
| 14 | Neelotpal Das | West Bengal | 2006 |
| 15 | Parimarjan Negi | Delhi | 2006 |
| 16 | G. N. Gopal | Kerala | 2007 |
| 17 | Abhijeet Gupta | Delhi | 2008 |
| 18 | S. Arun Prasad | Tamil Nadu | 2008 |
| 19 | Sundararajan Kidambi | Tamil Nadu | 2009 |
| 20 | R. R. Laxman | Tamil Nadu | 2009 |
| 21 | Sriram Jha | Delhi | 2010 |
| 22 | Deep Sengupta | West Bengal | 2010 |
| 23 | B. Adhiban | Tamil Nadu | 2010 |
2011–2017: Reaching 50 Grandmasters
| No. | Grandmaster | State | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | S. P. Sethuraman | Tamil Nadu | 2011 |
| 25 | Harika Dronavalli | Andhra Pradesh | 2011 |
| 26 | M. R. Lalith Babu | Andhra Pradesh | 2012 |
| 27 | Vaibhav Suri | Delhi | 2012 |
| 28 | M. R. Venkatesh | Tamil Nadu | 2012 |
| 29 | Sahaj Grover | Delhi | 2012 |
| 30 | Vidit Gujrathi | Maharashtra | 2013 |
| 31 | M. Shyam Sundar | Tamil Nadu | 2013 |
| 32 | Akshayraj Kore | Maharashtra | 2013 |
| 33 | V. Vishnu Prasanna | Tamil Nadu | 2013 |
| 34 | Debashis Das | Odisha | 2013 |
| 35 | Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury | West Bengal | 2013 |
| 36 | Ankit Rajpara | Gujarat | 2014 |
| 37 | Aravindh Chithambaram | Tamil Nadu | 2015 |
| 38 | Karthikeyan Murali | Tamil Nadu | 2015 |
| 39 | Ashwin Jayaram | Tamil Nadu | 2015 |
| 40 | Swapnil Dhopade | Maharashtra | 2016 |
| 41 | S. L. Narayanan | Kerala | 2016 |
| 42 | Shardul Gagare | Maharashtra | 2016 |
| 43 | Diptayan Ghosh | West Bengal | 2016 |
| 44 | K. Priyadharshan | Tamil Nadu | 2016 |
| 45 | Aryan Chopra | Delhi | 2017 |
| 46 | Srinath Narayanan | Tamil Nadu | 2017 |
| 47 | Himanshu Sharma | Haryana | 2017 |
| 48 | Anurag Mhamal | Goa | 2017 |
| 49 | Abhimanyu Puranik | Maharashtra | 2017 |
| 50 | M. S. Thejkumar | Karnataka | 2017 |
2018–2022: The Boom Begins
| No. | Grandmaster | State | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 51 | Saptarshi Roy | West Bengal | 2018 |
| 52 | R. Praggnanandhaa | Tamil Nadu | 2018 |
| 53 | Nihal Sarin | Kerala | 2018 |
| 54 | Arjun Erigaisi | Telangana | 2018 |
| 55 | Karthik Venkataraman | Andhra Pradesh | 2018 |
| 56 | Harsha Bharathakoti | Telangana | 2019 |
| 57 | P. Karthikeyan | Tamil Nadu | 2019 |
| 58 | Stany G. A. | Karnataka | 2019 |
| 59 | N. R. Visakh | Tamil Nadu | 2019 |
| 60 | D. Gukesh | Tamil Nadu | 2019 |
| 61 | P. Iniyan | Tamil Nadu | 2019 |
| 62 | Swayams Mishra | Odisha | 2019 |
| 63 | Girish Koushik | Karnataka | 2019 |
| 64 | Prithu Gupta | Delhi | 2019 |
| 65 | Raunak Sadhwani | Maharashtra | 2019 |
| 66 | G. Akash | Tamil Nadu | 2020 |
| 67 | Leon Mendonca | Goa | 2020 |
| 68 | Arjun Kalyan | Tamil Nadu | 2021 |
| 69 | Harshit Raja | Maharashtra | 2021 |
| 70 | Raja Rithvik R. | Telangana | 2021 |
| 71 | Mitrabha Guha | West Bengal | 2021 |
| 72 | Sankalp Gupta | Maharashtra | 2021 |
| 73 | Bharath Subramaniyam H. | Tamil Nadu | 2022 |
| 74 | Rahul Srivatshav P. | Telangana | 2022 |
| 75 | Pranav V. | Tamil Nadu | 2022 |
| 76 | Pranav Anand | Karnataka | 2022 |
| 77 | Aditya Mittal | Maharashtra | 2022 |
2023–2026: Racing to the 100th Grandmaster
| No. | Grandmaster | State | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 78 | Kaustav Chatterjee | West Bengal | 2023 |
| 79 | M. Pranesh | Tamil Nadu | 2023 |
| 80 | N. R. Vignesh | Tamil Nadu | 2023 |
| 81 | Sayantan Das | West Bengal | 2023 |
| 82 | Prraneeth Vuppala | Telangana | 2023 |
| 83 | Aditya Samant | Maharashtra | 2023 |
| 84 | R. Vaishali | Tamil Nadu | 2023 |
| 85 | P. Shyaam Nikhil | Tamil Nadu | 2024 |
| 86 | L. R. Srihari | Tamil Nadu | 2025 |
| 87 | A. R. Harikrishnan | Tamil Nadu | 2025 |
| 88 | Divya Deshmukh | Maharashtra | 2025 |
| 89 | S. Rohith Krishna | Tamil Nadu | 2025 |
| 90 | A. R. Ilamparthi | Tamil Nadu | 2025 |
| 91 | V. S. Raahul | Tamil Nadu | 2025 |
| 92 | Aaryan Varshney | Delhi | 2026 |
| 93 | Aarav Dengla | Maharashtra | 2026 |
| 94 | Mayank Chakraborty | Assam | 2026 |
| 95 | Aronyak Ghosh | West Bengal | 2026 |
| 96 | Ethan Vaz | Goa | 2026 |
| 97 | Harshavardhan G. B. | Tamil Nadu | 2026 |
| 98 | S. Aswath | Tamil Nadu | 2026 |
| 99 | V. S. Rathanvel | Tamil Nadu | 2026 |
| 100 | Anuj Shrivatri | Madhya Pradesh | 2026 |
Credit: Chessbase India
Which State Has the Most Grandmasters in India?
Tamil Nadu has produced 39 of India’s 100 Grandmasters, more than Maharashtra (14) and West Bengal (12) put together. In addition, fourteen states now have at least one GM.
| Rank | State | GMs | Notable names |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tamil Nadu | 39 | Viswanathan Anand, D. Gukesh, R. Praggnanandhaa, R. Vaishali |
| 2 | Maharashtra | 14 | Vidit Gujrathi, Divya Deshmukh, Raunak Sadhwani |
| 3 | West Bengal | 12 | Dibyendu Barua, Surya Shekhar Ganguly |
| 4 | Delhi | 8 | Parimarjan Negi, Abhijeet Gupta |
| 5 | Andhra Pradesh | 5 | Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Pentala Harikrishna |
| 5 | Telangana | 5 | Arjun Erigaisi |
| 7 | Karnataka | 4 | Pranav Anand |
| 8 | Kerala | 3 | Nihal Sarin, S. L. Narayanan |
| 8 | Goa | 3 | Leon Mendonca, Ethan Vaz |
| 10 | Gujarat | 2 | Tejas Bakre, Ankit Rajpara |
| 10 | Odisha | 2 | Debashis Das, Swayams Mishra |
| 12 | Haryana | 1 | Himanshu Sharma |
| 12 | Assam | 1 | Mayank Chakraborty |
| 12 | Madhya Pradesh | 1 | Anuj Shrivatri |
Two states got their first Grandmaster in 2026. Mayank Chakraborty became the first GM from Assam and the North East in March 2026. Then, Anuj Shrivatri did the same for Madhya Pradesh in November 2026.
From the First to the 100th Grandmaster: Three Eras of Indian Chess
1988–1999: The Anand era. For almost ten years, India had very few Grandmasters. In fact, Viswanathan Anand (1988), Dibyendu Barua (1991) and Pravin Thipsay (1997) were the only three. Later, Anand went on to become World Champion and inspired a generation.
2000–2017: Building depth. Over these years India added 47 more GMs and reached No. 50 with M. S. Thejkumar in 2017. During this period, Krishnan Sasikiran, Pentala Harikrishna, Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli and Vidit Gujrathi made India a regular force in team events.
2018–2026: The boom. Fifty Grandmasters came in nine years. For example, R. Praggnanandhaa and D. Gukesh earned the title as young teenagers, and Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin did it in the same 2018 wave. Finally, in 2026 alone there were nine new GMs.
India’s Women Grandmasters
Four Indian women hold the open Grandmaster title:
- Koneru Humpy (2002)
- Harika Dronavalli (2011)
- R. Vaishali (2023). Notably, she and R. Praggnanandhaa are the first brother and sister in the world to both become Grandmasters.
- Divya Deshmukh (2025)
