| Pravin Thipsay | |
|---|---|
 Thipsay in 2020 | |
| Full name | Pravin Mahadeo Thipsay |
| Country | India |
| Born | 12 August 1959 Mumbai, India |
| Title | Grandmaster (1997) |
| FIDE rating | 2376 (August 2019) |
| Peak rating | 2515 (January 1995) |
Pravin Mahadeo Thipsay (born 12 August 1959) is an Indian chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster. He is the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster Norm and the first Indian to win the Commonwealth Chess Championship.
In 1984, the Government of India conferred its highest sports award, the Arjuna Award on him. Thipsay won his first Grandmaster norm in the same year but he could not convert into the Grandmaster title within the stipulated five years. [1]
He won the Indian Chess Championship in 1982 (Kanpur), 1984 (Ahmedabad), 1985 (Tenali), 1989 (Bikaner), 1992, 1993 and 1994 and played for India in the Chess Olympiads of 1982, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1994, 1998 and 2002. [2]
He was the Joint Silver Medalist in the Commonwealth Chess Championship in 1986 (London), in 1989(London), in 1991 (London), in 1994 (London), in 1996 (Kolkata, India), while he won the bronze medals in the Commonwealth Chess Championship in 1999 (Bikaner, India), in 2000 (Sangli, India) and in 2004 (Mumbai, India). He was also the Individual Gold Medalist in Asian Teams Chess Championships in 1983 (New Delhi, India) and in 2003 (Jodhpur, India)
In 1985, Thipsay tied for first with Kevin Spraggett in the Commonwealth Chess Championship. In 1998, he tied for 4-7th with Sergey Zagrebelny, Mohamad Al-Modiahki and Amanmurad Kakageldyev in the Asian Chess Championship in Tehran, [3] in 2004 tied for 2nd–6th behind Marat Dzhumaev in Pune [4] and in the same year tied for 2nd–3rd with Saidali Iuldachev and Chakkravarthy Deepan in Lucknow. [5] In 2007, he won the FIDE Rated All India Open Chess Tournament in Mangalore. [6]
According to Chessmetrics, at his peak in August 1981 Thipsay's play was equivalent to a rating of 2571, and he was ranked number 141 in the world. His best single performance was at Brighton (BCF Championship) 1984, where he scored 6,5 of 10 possible points (65%) against 2549-rated opposition, for a performance rating of 2623. [7]
In 1997, he became the third Indian to attain the Grandmaster title after Anand and Dibyendu Barua.
He used to play on FIDE online arena with the username "Thipsay" and on ChessCube with the username "Hyunthi".
Pravin Thipsay is married to Woman International Master Bhagyashree Sathe Thipsay. [8] The Former Judge of Bombay High Court Abhay Thipsay is his brother.
Susanto Megaranto is an Indonesian chess player. In 2004, he became the youngest Indonesian ever to qualify for the title Grandmaster at 17, beating out Utut Adianto's record by four years. He won the Indonesian Chess Championship four times in a row from 2006 to 2010. He graduated from Gunadarma University.
Emil Sutovsky is an Israeli chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1996. Sutovsky is the FIDE CEO since 2022. Previously he served as FIDE Director-General (2018-22). He was the president of the Association of Chess Professionals from 2012 to 2019.
Abhijeet Gupta is an Indian chess player with the title of Grandmaster (GM). Gupta is the first player to win the Commonwealth Chess Championship five times. He completed his early education from A's Steward Senior Secondary School, Bhilwara before embarking upon his career as a chess player.
The Commonwealth Chess Championship is a gathering of chess players from Commonwealth countries. The event offers direct titles: IM titles to the winners, and FM titles to the Silver and Bronze medalists.
IlyaSmirin is a Belarusian-Israeli chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1990.
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.
Zahar Oleksandrovych Efimenko is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He was a member of the gold medal-winning Ukrainian team at the 2010 Chess Olympiad. Efimenko competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2005, 2009 and 2011.
Harika Dronavalli is an Indian chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). She was part of the gold winning women's team at the 45th Chess Olympiad in 2024. She has won three bronze medals in the Women's World Chess Championship, in 2012, 2015 and 2017. Harika was honored with the Arjuna Award for the year 2007–08 by the government of India. In 2016, she won the FIDE Women's Grand Prix event at Chengdu, China and rose up from world no. 11 to world no. 5 in FIDE women's ranking. In 2019, she was awarded the Padma Shri for her contributions towards the field of sports.
Sergey Zagrebelny is an Uzbekistani chess Grandmaster (1993).
Marat Dzhumaev is an Uzbekistani chess Grandmaster (2001) and twice national champion.
Handszar Odeev is a Turkmen chess grandmaster (2004).
Johan Hellsten is a Swedish chess grandmaster. He was Swedish Chess Champion in 2006.
Mihhail Rõtšagov is an Estonian chess Grandmaster.
Šarūnas Šulskis is a Lithuanian chess Grandmaster (1996).
Kaido Külaots is an Estonian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2001.
Deep Sengupta is an Indian chess player. He is India's 22nd player to be awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE. Sengupta competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2017.
J. Deepan Chakkravarthy is an Indian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2006.
Slim Belkhodja is a Tunisian chess Grandmaster (2002).
Vlastimil Babula is a chess grandmaster from the Czech Republic who was Czech Champion in 1993 and second at the World Junior Championship of 1993.
Max Illingworth is an Australian former chess player, and current chess trainer and writer. In 2022 he started playing poker professionally. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2016, becoming the fifth Australian to achieve this. Illingworth won the Steiner Medal in 2011, 2012 and 2015. His current FIDE rating is 2493. He retired from competitive chess in March 2019, to concentrate on coaching and writing.
