Anuj Shrivatri’s win gives India its 100th Grandmaster at ASEAN Plus in Ozamiz City

Anuj Shrivatri became India’s 100th Grandmaster on Diwali Day after winning the ASEAN Plus Individual Open Chess Championship at Ozamiz City in the Philippines, securing the GM title directly.

Viswanathan Anand’s early career milestones are central to the background of Indian chess: he faced Alexei Shirov in Teheran in 2000 for his first World title, and has reflected on his own path to the GM rank, saying, "I had no way of knowing if I would become a GM or not," and "It took me two full years to get it." Anand achieved his final GM norm in December, 1987, at the Sakthi Finance tournament in Coimbatore, a time when India did not yet have a Grandmaster and Asia had only two.

Shrivatri’s route to the title was by winning the ASEAN Plus event, which awarded him the GM title directly; he did not obtain it through the usual process of securing three norms and reaching a FIDE rating of 2,500 Elo points.

India’s progression to a century of Grandmasters followed a gradual build-up after Anand. Dibyendu Barua became the country’s next GM in 1991, four years after Anand’s final norm; Pravin Thipsay followed six years later; Abhijit Kunte became India’s fourth GM in 2000, after which the title began to arrive more regularly.

Several developments are cited as contributing factors to the rise in Indian Grandmasters: Anand’s international success, described in the article as his exploits as the "Lightning Kid"; increased parental investment in chess for children; the All India Chess Federation’s organisation of tournaments and coaching camps involving reputed Grandmasters from overseas; and a growing level of corporate support.

In global context, only three other countries — Russia, the United States and Germany — currently sit in the same 100-GM bracket, and those nations have had Grandmasters since the world governing body, FIDE, started awarding the title in 1950; seven decades on, there are around 2,000 Grandmasters worldwide.

With Shrivatri’s achievement, India joins Russia, the United States and Germany as one of four countries to have produced 100 Grandmasters.