Anuj Shrivatri becomes India's 100th chess Grandmaster with ASEAN victory

Anuj Shrivatri has won the 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open Chess Championship in Ozamiz City, the Philippines, becoming India's 100th chess Grandmaster and the first from Madhya Pradesh.

The 22-year-old International Master from Katni scored seven points from nine rounds to secure the title by half a point ahead of Vietnamese Grandmaster Nguyen Duc Hoa. Despite dropping his opening match against home player Arca Karlo, Shrivatri won six of his remaining eight games to claim the top prize of $3,000. Under tournament regulations, winning the direct event earned him the Grandmaster title without needing to accumulate three conventional norms across separate competitions.

Shrivatri's journey to the top rank of international chess involved making a decisive choice between professional technology and competitive sport. After completing a BTech degree in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at Lovely Professional University, he turned down an overseas corporate posting as a software engineer at a German firm to dedicate himself entirely to chess training.

India's rapid rise in international chess

India's journey from its first Grandmaster to its 100th reflects the remarkable expansion of the nation's sporting ecosystem and chess infrastructure over recent decades. While legendary player Viswanathan Anand became the country's inaugural Grandmaster in 1988 and it took nearly three decades to reach 50 Grandmasters by 2017, the second 50 have emerged in less than nine years. Ten Indian players have earned the title in 2026 alone.

India now stands alongside Russia, the United States, Ukraine and Germany as one of only five nations to reach the 100 Grandmaster mark. The geographical base of Indian chess has widened significantly, moving beyond traditional strongholds such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and West Bengal to produce elite champions from 14 states, including Assam, Rajasthan, Goa and now Madhya Pradesh.