Indian chess has reached a landmark a generation in the making. International Master Anuj Shrivatri of Madhya Pradesh has become India’s 100th Grandmaster, clinching the title at the 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open Chess Championship in the Philippines.
The milestone is a measure of how far Indian chess has travelled. When Viswanathan Anand became the country’s first Grandmaster in 1988, he was a lone figure. The second took years. The hundredth has arrived in the middle of a boom — a surge of young talent, coaching infrastructure and tournament opportunities that has made India one of the deepest chess nations in the world.
Shrivatri’s title came at the ASEAN Plus championship, a tournament that draws strong fields from across Asia. Winning it outright, and with it the final norm he needed, was a fitting way to cross the line. The Grandmaster title is awarded by the world chess body FIDE once a player has achieved three norms — performances of a required standard in strong tournaments — along with a rating of 2,500.
For Shrivatri, from Madhya Pradesh, the achievement is the culmination of years of grinding through open tournaments, often far from home and frequently at his own expense. That is the reality for most Indian players outside the small circle of established stars: the road to the title is long, expensive and uncertain, and it is travelled largely on the strength of family support and personal stubbornness.
The timing of the 100th title matters. Indian chess is enjoying its greatest era. The men’s and women’s teams have won Olympiad gold, young stars are breaking into the world elite, and the country now produces Grandmasters at a rate that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. Shrivatri’s achievement is both a product of that ecosystem and a contribution to it.
A century of Grandmasters also changes what the title means in India. It is no longer a rarity to be marvelled at, but a standard that ambitious young players expect to reach. Chess academies across the country will point to the number — 100 — as proof that the path is real and that it can be walked from anywhere, including a state that has not traditionally been a chess powerhouse.
Shrivatri now joins a list that begins with Anand and runs through a generation of stars who have made India a chess superpower. His name is the hundredth on it. It will not be the last for long.
