Full list of chess Grandmasters from India
(Courtesy : Scroll.in)
Vaishali Rameshbabu recently became the third Indian female to earn the Grandmaster title.
Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from world champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain and once achieved, the title is held for life, though can be revoked for cheating.
The first GM titles were awarded to 27 players in 1950, and the qualifications to become a GM have changed throughout the years. FIDE currently awards the title of GM to a player who achieves 2500 FIDE classical (or ‘standard’) rating and three GM norms. Each GM norm is extremely difficult to attain, and there are many rules for what constitutes a norm.
As of December 2023, India boasts an impressive chess roster with 84 Grandmasters (GM), including three female players holding the esteemed title. Additionally, there are 136 International Masters (IM), with nine females among them, along with 18 woman Grandmasters (WGM) and 43 women International Masters (WIM). The country hosts a total of 33,028 rated players, with female players numbering 3,534, making up 10.7% of the total rated players in India.
Manuel Aaron secured the distinction of being India’s first titled player when he became the first International Master (IM) in 1961, while Viswanathan Anand achieved the historic feat of becoming India’s inaugural Grandmaster in 1988. The trailblazers among Indian woman in chess include Jayshree Khadilkar, who earned the WIM title in 1979 and Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi, who became the first to claim the WGM title in 2001.
The prestigious title of Grandmaster for woman in India was first attained by Koneru Humpy in 2002, while Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi became an IM in the same year. These milestones mark significant achievements in the Indian chess landscape, showcasing the remarkable talent and progress within the country’s chess community.
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List of Indian chess Grandmasters
- 1987 – Vishwanathan Anand, Tamil Nadu
- 1991 – Dibyendu Barua, West Bengal
- 1997 – Pravin Thipsay, Maharashtra
- 2000 – Abhijit Kunte, Maharashtra
- 2000 – K Sasikiran, Tamil Nadu
- 2001 – Pentala Harikrishna, AndhraPradesh
- 2002 – Koneru Humpy, Andhra Pradesh
- 2003 – Surya Sekhar Ganguly, West Bengal
- 2003 – Sandipan Chanda, West Bengal
- 2004 – RB Ramesh, Tamil Nadu
- 2004 – Tejas Bakre, Gujarat
- 2006 – P.Magesh Chandran, Tamil Nadu
- 2006 – Deepan Chakravarthy, Tamil Nadu
- 2006 – Neelotpal Das, West Bengal
- 2006 – Parimarjan Negi, Delhi
- 2007 – GN Gopal, Kerala
- 2008 – Abhijeet Gupta, Rajasthan
- 2008 – S.Arun Prasad, Tamil Nadu
- 2009 – S.Kidambi, Tamil Nadu
- 2009 – RR Laxman, Tamil Nadu
- 2010 – Sriram Jha, Delhi
- 2010 – Deep Sengupta, West Bengal
- 2010 – B Adhiban, Tamil Nadu
- 2011 – SP Sethuraman, Tamil Nadu
- 2011 – Harika Dronavalli, Andhra Pradesh
- 2012 – Lalith Babu M R, Andhra Pradesh
- 2012 – Vaibhav Suri, Delhi
- 2012 – MR Venkatesh, Tamil Nadu
- 2012 – Sahaj Grover, Delhi
- 2013 – Vidit Gujrathi, Maharashtra
- 2013 – Shyam Sundar M, Tamil Nadu
- 2013 – Akhshayraj Kore, Maharashtra
- 2013 – Vishnu Prasanna,Tamil Nadu
- 2013 – Debashis Das, Odisha
- 2013 – Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury, West Bengal
- 2014 – Ankit Rajpara, Gujarat
- 2015 – Aravindh Chithambaram, Tamil Nadu
- 2015 – Karthikeyan Murali, Tamil Nadu
- 2015 – Ashwin Jayaram, Tamil Nadu
- 2015 – Swapnil S Dhopade, Maharashtra
- 2015 – SL Narayanan, Kerala
- 2016 – Shardul Gagare, Maharashtra
- 2016 – Diptayan Ghosh, West Bengal
- 2016 – Priyadarshan K, Tamil Nadu
- 2017 – Aryan Chopra, Delhi
- 2017 – Srinath Narayanan, Tamil Nadu
- 2017 – Himanshu Sharma, Haryana
- 2017 – Anurag Mhamal, Goa
- 2017 – Abhimanyu Puranik, Maharashtra
- 2017 – Thej Kumar M S, Karnataka
- 2018 – Saptarshi Roy, West Bengal
- 2018 – Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa,Tamil Nadu
- 2018 – Nihal Sarin, Kerala
- 2018 – Erigaisi Arjun, Telangana
- 2018 – Karthik Venkataraman, Telangana
- 2018 – Harsha Bharathakoti, Telangana
- 2018 – P Karthikeyan, Tamil Nadu
- 2018 – Stany George Anthony, Karnataka
- 2019 – Visakh N R, Tamil Nadu
- 2019 – Dommaraju Gukesh, Tamil Nadu
- 2019 – PanneerselvamIniyan, Tamil Nadu
- 2019 – Swayams Mishra, Odisha
- 2019 – Girish Koushik, Karnataka
- 2019 – Prithu Gupta, Delhi
- 2019 – Raunak Sadhwani, Maharashtra
- 2020 – Akash Ganesan, Tamil Nadu
- 2020 – Leon Mendonca, Goa
- 2021 – Arjun Kalyan, Tamil Nadu
- 2021 – Harshit Raja, Maharashtra
- 2021 – Raja Rithvik, Telangana
- 2021 – Sankalp Gupta, Maharashtra
- 2021 – Mitrabha Guha, West Bengal
- 2022 – Bharath Subramaniyam, Tamil Nadu
- 2022 – Rahul Srivatshav P, Telangana
- 2022 – V Pranav, Tamil Nadu
- 2022 – Pranav Anand, Karnatka
- 2022 – Aditya Mittal, Maharashtra
- 2023 – Koustav Chatterjee, West Bengal
- 2023 – Pranesh M, Tamil Nadu
- 2023 – Vignesh N R, Tamil Nadu
- 2023 – Sayantan Das, West Bengal
- 2023 – Vuppala Prraneeth, Telengana
- 2023 – Aditya Samant, Maharashtra
- 2023 – Vaishali Rameshbabu, Tamil Nadu
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