Chess in India | |
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Governing body | All India Chess Federation |
Chess has risen in popularity in India in the last few decades primarily due to chess Grandmaster and former 5-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand.
It is believed that chess originated from Chaturanga of ancient India. The All India Chess Federation is the governing body for chess in India.
Viswanathan Anand, held the FIDE title from 2000 to 2002, and the unified title from 2007 to 2013.
The highest ranked Indian players are:
As of November 2021, the following is the number of Indian chess players in various segments:
India has produced:
Competition | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|
World Team Championship | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Olympiad | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 |
Asian Games | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
Asian Team Championship | 3 | 11 | 7 | 21 |
Total | 6 | 12 | 13 | 31 |
The top 10 Indian grandmasters as of January 2024 are listed below. [2] India has 9 players in top 100 FIDE Open rating list in 2023.
Viswanathan Anand is currently No. 9 in the FIDE World Rankings and the former World Champion. Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and former world chess champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating of 2800, a feat he first achieved in 2006.
# | Player | Birth year | Rating | State | GM Title | World rank [n 1] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Viswanathan Anand | 1969 | 2748 | Tamil Nadu | 1988 | 11 |
2 | Gukesh D | 2006 | 2725 | Tamil Nadu | 2019 | 25 |
3 | Vidit Gujrathi | 1994 | 2742 | Maharashtra | 2013 | 14 |
4 | Pentala Harikrishna | 1986 | 2704 | Andhra Pradesh | 2001 | 33 |
5 | Praggnanandhaa R | 2005 | 2743 | Tamil Nadu | 2018 | 13 |
6 | Arjun Erigaisi | 2003 | 2738 | Telangana | 2018 | 17 |
7 | Nihal Sarin | 2004 | 2693 | Kerala | 2018 | 43 |
8 | S. L. Narayanan | 1998 | 2694 | Kerala | 2015 | 42 |
9 | Chithambaram Arvindh VR | 1999 | 2662 | Tamil Nadu | 2015 | 72 |
10 | Aryan Chopra | 2001 | 2630 | NCT of Delhi | 2017 | 119 |
The top 10 women Indian chess players are listed below as of November 2013. [3]
The top blind Indian chess players are listed below as of December 2021. [4]
# | Player | ELO Rating | Birth year | State | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Darpan Inani | 2124 | 1994 | Gujarat | Bronze medal, World Junior chess Championship for the blind, Serbia, 2013 |
2 | Kishan Gangolli | 2113 | 1992 | Karnataka | 6-time winner at National A championships (Blind) from 2012 to 2019. |
3 | Charudatta Jadhav | 1998 | Maharashtra | President International Braille Chess Association | |
4 | Kaustubh Khare | 1982 | Maharashtra | ||
5 | Aryan B Joshi | 1909 | Maharashtra | ||
6 | Oza Rajesh | 1861 | 1977 | Maharashtra | |
7 | Shah Swapanil | 1860 | 1966 | Karnataka | |
8 | Makhwana Ashwin K | 1858 | Maharashtra | 2nd place, IBCA Asian Chess Championship for the Visually Challenged 2017 | |
9 | Patra Subhendu Kumar | 1783 | Odisha | ||
10 | Krishna Udupa | 1733 | 1972 | Karnataka | Founder, Nalanda Chess Academy, Shivamogga. First coach of GM Stany G.A. |
Christopher Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess grandmaster, streamer, YouTuber, five-time U.S. Chess Champion, and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 15, the youngest American at the time to do so. With a peak rating of 2816, Nakamura is the tenth-highest-rated player in history.
Koneru Humpy is an Indian chess player best known for winning the FIDE Women's rapid chess championship in 2019. In 2002, she became the youngest woman ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster (GM) at the age of 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, beating Judit Polgár's previous record by three months. In October 2007, Humpy became the second female player, after Polgár, to exceed the 2600 Elo rating mark, being rated 2606.
Mikhail Gurevich is a Soviet-born Belgian chess player. He was a top ten ranked player from 1989 to 1991. Gurevich became an International Grandmaster in 1986, and is currently an FIDE arbiter and senior trainer.
Dibyendu Barua is an Indian chess grandmaster. He is a three-time Indian Chess Champion. He was the second Indian chess player, after Viswanathan Anand, second Bengali after Niaz Murshed, and third South Asian after Niaz and Anand to achieve the title of chess grandmaster.
Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi is an Indian chess player who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM), the first female player in her country to achieve these titles. She has won more medals than any other player for India in the Chess Olympiads. She has won almost all national age group titles, including the senior title.
Below is a list of events in chess in 1996, as well as the top ten FIDE rated chess players of that year.
Grzegorz Gajewski is a Polish chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2006.
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and norms. Once awarded, titles are held for life except in cases of fraud or cheating. Open titles may be earned by all players, while women's titles are restricted to female players. Many strong female players hold both open and women's titles. FIDE also awards titles for arbiters, organizers and trainers. Titles for correspondence chess, chess problem composition and chess problem solving are no longer administered by FIDE.
The London Chess Classic is a chess festival held at the Olympia Conference Centre, West Kensington, London. The flagship event is a strong invitational tournament between some of the world's top grandmasters. A number of subsidiary events cover a wide range of chess activities, including tournaments suitable for norm and title seekers, junior events, amateur competitions, simultaneous exhibitions, coaching, and lectures.
The All India Chess Federation (AICF) is the central administrative body for the game of chess in India. Founded in 1951, the federation is affiliated to Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), the world body for chess. The AICF has produced Viswanathan Anand, Nihal Sarin, Pentala Harikrishna, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and many other grandmasters. The organisation is also in charge of managing women's chess in India. AICF's current headquarter is in New Delhi.
Jan-Krzysztof Duda is a Polish chess grandmaster. A prodigy, he achieved the grandmaster title in 2013 at the age of 15 years and 21 days. As of December 2023, he is ranked No. 1 in Poland and No. 16 in the world. His personal best rating of 2760 makes him the highest ranked Polish player of all time.
Nihal Sarin is an Indian chess grandmaster and chess prodigy. In 2018, he passed the Elo rating of 2600 at 14 years old, which at the time made him the third youngest player in history to do so.
The open event at the 43rd Chess Olympiad was held from 24 September to 5 October 2018. It was contested by a record number of 185 teams, representing 180 nations. Georgia, as host nation, fielded three teams, whilst the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA), the International Physically Disabled Chess Association (IPCA), and the International Chess Committee of the Deaf (ICCD) each provided one team. A total of 920 players participated in the open event.
Arjun Kumar Erigaisi is an Indian chess grandmaster and India's highest ranked player as of Apr 2024, overtaking former world champion Viswanathan Anand. A chess prodigy, he earned the title of grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 13 days, making him the 32nd youngest person ever to achieve the title of grandmaster. He is the 54th grandmaster from India. He won the 2022 Indian National Championship.
Subbaraman Meenakshi is an Indian chess player who received the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) in 2004.
Dommaraju Gukesh is an Indian chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he is the third-youngest Grandmaster in history, the third-youngest to reach a chess rating of 2700, the youngest to reach a rating of 2750 and the youngest winner of the FIDE Candidates tournament. Gukesh won the 2024 Candidates Tournament, making him the youngest contender to compete for the title of World Chess Champion.
The 44th Chess Olympiad was an international team chess event organised by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in Chennai, India, from 28 July to 10 August 2022. It consisted of Open and Women's tournaments, as well as several events to promote chess. The Olympiad was initially supposed to take place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, the host of the Chess World Cup 2019, in August 2020, but it was later moved to Moscow. However, it was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then relocated to Chennai following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This was the first Chess Olympiad to take place in India.
The open event at the 44th Chess Olympiad was held from 29 July to 9 August 2022. It was contested by a record number of 188 teams, representing 186 nations. India, as host nation, fielded three teams. A total of 937 players participated in the open event.
The women's event at the 44th Chess Olympiad was held from 29 July to 9 August 2022. It was contested by a record number of 162 teams, representing 160 nations. India, as host nation, fielded three teams. A total of 799 players participated in the women's event.