Thirty eight year after Vishwanathan Anand became India’s first-ever chess Grandmaster, Anuj Shrivatri of Madhya Pradesh hit a century in the sport. The 22-year-old Shrivatri became India’s 100th GM after winning the 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open Chess Championship in Philippines. A five-time world champion, Anand got the nation it’s first GM back in 1988.
In a country, known for its craze in cricket, reaching the 100 GMs milestone is a indeed a rising graph for chess in India, with the younger bunch consisting , Arjun Erigaisi and among the notable names dominating at the world stage.
Such has been the domination recently, India got its last five GMs between July and November in 2026 alone. Ethan Vaz, Harshvardhan GB, S Ashwath and V Rathnavel got their GM titles just before Shrivatri. Gukesh is the reigning world champion and will defend his crown later this month.
As we talk about the big names, we often forget who were in between. While Anand and will go down in history of Indian chess as the milestone makers, there are 98 in between who have made the country proud at some point in time or are making presently.
As the whole nation continues to celebrate Shrivatri, all eyes will be up on Gukesh later this month when the Indian reigning World Champion take on a challenging contest against Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov in his title defence at the FIDE 2026.
Gukesh is scheduled to defend his world championship crown in a 14-game classical chess match against Sindarov from November 24 to December 12, 2026. The contest will take place at the Fondation Martin Bodmer in Cologny, Geneva, Switzerland.
The Indian prodigy will look to retain the title he won in December 2024 after defeating China’s Ding Liren in Singapore. At 18 years, six months and 24 days, Gukesh became the youngest World Chess Champion in history. His title triumph marked a significant milestone in Indian chess, as he became only the second Indian after Anand to become a world champion.
Gukesh earned his Grandmaster title in January 2019 at the age of 12 years, seven months and 17 days, establishing himself as one of the youngest players to achieve the distinction.
