List of 82 Chess Grandmasters in India (1988-2023)

Although chess is believed to originate from the Indian game of Chaturanga, the game rose to immense popularity when Viswanathan Anand won the first Grandmaster title for the country. India got its first Grandmaster title in 1988 and within three decades it produced 82 Grandmasters. Other than this, India chess players are also dominating other format of the game and currently there are 124 International Masters (IM), 18 Woman Grandmasters (WGM) and 42 Woman International Masters (WIM) title holders from the county. In this article however, we will discuss the list of Chess Grandmasters in India from 1988 to 2023 along with other interesting details about the game.

Total 82 Chess Grandmasters in India List (1988 to 2023)

The table below presents the list of Chess Grandmasters in India from 1988 to 2023 along with the state from where they belong and the year in which they won the Grandmaster title. Viswanathan Anand was the first person from India to win this title in 1988 and popularize the game of chess once again in the country. There are total 82 chess grandmasters in India. Vuppala Prraneeth is the 82nd chess grandmaster of India.

First & Most in Chess Grandmasters in India

Check out the some interesting details about Indian Chess Grandmasters in terms of first and most.

First Grandmaster from India- Viswanathan Anand

Viswanathan Anand is the first person from India to become Chess Grandmaster and one of the few players to achieve Elo rating above 2800. Anand won the Grandmaster title in 1988 when he was only 18 years old after winning Shakti Finance International chess tournament held in Coimbatore, India. For his historic achievement, he was awarded Padma Shri at age 18 and was also the first sportsperson to receive the Padma Vibhushan award. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion currently serving as the deputy president of FIDE.

First Female Grandmaster of India- Koneru Humpy

Koneru Humpy was the first Indian woman to win Grandmasters title and the eighth ever female Grandmaster. She won the title in 2002 and became the youngest woman ever to do so at the age of 15 years, 1 month, 27 days. Recently, she won the FIDE Women’s rapid chess championship in 2019 after coming back from a two-year maternity sabbatical.

Youngest Grandmaster of India- Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, a chess prodigy, earned the international master title at the age of 10 and the Grandmaster title at age 12. with these achievements, he became the youngest and the second-youngest player to win these titles respectively. Again in 2022, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest player to defeat current world champion Magnus Carlsen at only the age of 16. He is the younger brother of Woman Grandmaster and International Master, R Vaishali.

State with maximum Grandmaster from India- Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is the Indian state to produce most number of Grandmaster title from India. Out of 75 Grandmasters, 26 belong to the state of Tamil Nadu, followed by Maharashtra (10) and West Bengal (9). Viswanathan Anand, the first India to ever become a Grandmaster, also belong to the Tamil Nadu state.

FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs)

The International Chess Federation (also known as World Chess Federation and referred to by its French acronym FIDE) is an international organization based in Switzerland that acts as the governing body of international chess competition. The organization was founded in France in 1924 and is recognized as the major organizer of chess championships at international levels by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). FIDE defines the rules of chess, both for individual and international competitions, calculates the Elo ratings of players and awards titles, including Grandmaster.

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