The National Premier Chess Championship is the annual national chess championship of India. It was established in 1955 by the Andhra State Chess Association as a biannual event, but since 1971 it has been played yearly.
The first edition was held in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh from 15 May to 28 May 1955 and was jointly won by Ramchandra Sapre and Dharbha Venkayya with 9/12 points. [1] Earlier, G. S. Dikshit of Pithapuram won the Andhra and Madras State Championships for three consecutive years, 1952–54. [2] Manuel Aaron from the state of Tamilnadu won the Men's National title for a record 9 times, followed by Praveen Thipsay who won the title for 7 times. Surya Shekhar Ganguly had won a record six consecutive National titles from 2003 to 2008. Indian Chess legend Viswanathan Anand won the Nationals title for three consecutive times in 1986, 1987 and 1988. Karthik Venkataraman is the reigning Nationals Men Champion in 2024.
In 1977 Rohini Khadilkar became the first female player to compete in that championship. Some players objected to her being in the tournament because she was female. Her father wrote to the World Chess Federation president, Max Euwe, and Euwe ruled that female players could not be barred from open chess events. [3]
The separate women's championship commenced in 1974. The first ten editions were dominated by the Khadilkar sisters Vasanti, Jayshree and Rohini. Rohini is the youngest and won the championship five times, Jayshree won four titles, and the eldest, Vasanti, won the championship in the inaugural year. Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi won the title for a record 6 times, followed by Rohini Khadilkar and Padmini Rout who have each won the National Women title for a record 5 times. P. V. Nandhidhaa is the reigning Nationals Women Champion in 2024.
As on 2024, the Nationals title winner receives INR 7,00,000 Cash prize followed by INR 5,50,000 and INR 4,50,000 for Second and Third positions respectively. Top Four players from both Men and Women events were selected to participate in the Chess World Cup 2025 and Women's Chess World Cup 2025.
