Top 25 Indian Chess Players Of Current Times

Even though chess originated from the game “Chaturanga” played in India, the country has been late in producing world-class chess players. Manuel Aran, the first player from India to win his International Master (IM) title, was in 1961. But it was actually chess legend Viswanathan Anand who popularised the game in the country to its current level.

He is also credited with putting India on the map for chess expertise with his stellar performances across all formats. Today, Indians have taken to chess like a fish to water, and it is quickly reclaiming its position as one of the most loved, admired, and played games in the country. According to the International Chess Federation, FIDE, as of January 2021, Indian chess players include 68 Grandmasters, 124 International Masters, 20 Woman Grandmasters, and 42 Woman International Masters, and a total of 33,028 rated players.

As of January 2021, the average rating of the top 10 active Indian chess players is 2670, the fourth highest in the world after Russia, the United States, and China. The average rating of the top 10 active female Indian players is 2405, the third highest in the world after China and Russia.

The juniors are not far behind either. The top 100 junior players in the world include 16 Indian players, including Nihal Sarin ranked sixth. The top 100 junior girl players in the world include 13 Indian players, including Vaishali Rameshbabu ranked eighth.

Here is a list of the Top 25 Indian Chess Players of Current Times, starting with the Grandmasters

1. Viswanathan Anand – Highest Ranking – 2817

 

One of the few players in the world to have crossed the Elo rating of 2800, Vishy is a former World Chess Champion with the distinction of winning it 5 times. Known for his sharp moves that come in the blink of an eye, “The Lightning Kid” Anand became the fourth player in history to cross the 2800 Elo mark in the FIDE rating list after Kramnik, Topalov, and Garry Kasparov in April 2006. He held the number one spot for 21 months, the sixth-longest period on record.

2. Pentala Harikrishna – Highest Ranking – 2770

 

Harikrishna became India’s youngest Grandmaster in 2001, a record now held by Gukesh D. He was the Commonwealth champion in 2001, World Junior champion in 2004, and Asian Individual champion in 2011. He represented India in seven Chess Olympiads from 2000 to 2012 and won team bronze at the World Team Chess Championship in 2010. In the Asian Team Championships, Pentala won team gold once, team silver twice, and individual bronze once.

In February 2013, Pentala’s FIDE rating exceeded 2700 for the first time. In November 2016, he entered the top ten players in the world with a FIDE rating of 2768.

3. Vidit Gujrathi – Highest Ranking – 2726

 

The third-highest-rated player in India, Vidi is also the fourth Indian player to cross the Elo rating threshold of 2700. In 2006, he received the FIDE Master title when he finished second in the Asian Youth Championships in the U12 category. He also won the International Master title in 2008. The same year, he won the World Youth Chess Championship in the Open U14 section, the first Indian to achieve this feat. In 2013, Vidit won a bronze medal at the World Junior Chess Championship in Turkey in the junior (U-20) category.

Vidit finished third in the Hyderabad International Grandmasters Chess Tournament in 2013, winning Rs 1.5 lakh. Vidit has also been finishing in the top 10 in other tournaments, including the Commonwealth Championship in 2008. He was the captain of the Indian team that won a historic gold at the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020.

4. Krishnan Sasikiran – Highest Ranking – 2720

 

4-time Indian Chess Championship winner Krishnan Sasikiran cleared all the requirements for the Grandmaster title at the 2000 Commonwealth Championship. In 2001, he won the prestigious Hastings International Chess Tournament. In 2003, he won the 4th Asian Individual Championship and the Politiken Cup in Copenhagen.

Sasikiran tied with Jan Timman for first place in the 2005 Sigeman & Co chess tournament. Sasikiran won the gold medal in the team event of the 2006 Asian Games. He is also a very successful correspondence chess player. In 2015 he earned the title of an international master and in 2016 he became a senior international master. He fulfilled the criteria for both titles at the Marian Vinchev Memorial and the Palaciauskas Invitational

5. Adhiban Baskaran – Highest ranking – 2701

 

Known as “Beast” because of his ultra-aggressive playing style, Adhiban was the 2008 World Under-16 and 2009 Indian champion. In 2007 he won the Asian Under-16 Championship in Tashkent. Adhiban played on the first board for the gold medal-winning Indian team at the 2007 and 2008 Under-16 Chess Olympiads.

In the Tata Steel tournament in 2012, he tied for third-fourth with Dan Brandenburg with a score of 8.5/13. In the 2013 Chess World Cup, Adhiban pulled off upsets in the first two rounds, defeating 2710-rated Russian GM Evgeny Alekseev in the first round and Alexander Fear in the second.

Adhiban won the 2013 Sants Open in which 23 GMs and 28 IMs participated, with a score of 8.5 points out of 10. In July 2014 he won the Masters Open tournament of the Biel Chess Festival. The following month, he contributed to India’s bronze medal at the 41st Chess Olympiad by scoring 7/11.

He was also a member of the Spanish League 2015-winning team Solvay along with teammates Pentala Harikrishna, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Alexander Delchev, Sergio Cacho Reigadas, Jesus Maria de la Villa Garcia and Elizbar Ubilav.

In January 2016, Adhiban won the 2016 Tata Steel Challengers tournament in a 3-way tie. The co-leaders were GM Alexey Dreev and GM Eltaj Safarli, all of whom earned 9 points out of 13 (+6-1=6). Since Adhiban had beaten both of them, he had better tiebreaks and was therefore given a place in the next Tata Steel Masters tournament.

Despite being the lowest-rated player in the 2017 Tata Steel Masters tournament, he finished third with a score of 7.5 points out of 13 (+4-2=7). He defeated Sergey Karjakin, Dmitry Andreikin, Richar Rapport, and Radoslaw Wojtaszek.

Adhiban won the 2018 Reykjavik Open by scoring 7½/9 (+6–0=3). He registered wins over Alejandro Ramirez, Maxime Lagarde and Richard Rapport.

6. Surya Shekhar Ganguly – Highest Ranking – 2676

Surya Shekhar Ganguly became an International Master at the age of 16 and a Grandmaster at the age of 19. He has won 40 individual gold, 21 individual silver, and 6 individual bronze medals in national and international tournaments. He was a six-time national champion (2003–2008) and Asian champion in 2009. He served in the second team that assisted Viswanathan Anand in winning World Championship matches against Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov, and Boris Gelfand in 2008, 2010, and 2012 respectively.

7. SP Sethuraman – Highest Ranking – 2673

 

Sethuraman’s winning streak was evident at a very young age when he won the 2004 Asian Under-12 Championship in Singapore and then the 2009 World Under-16 Championship. In the year 2009, he achieved the three norms required for the Grandmaster title. In 2014, Sethuraman won the team bronze medal with the Indian team in the 41st Chess Olympiad and won the Indian National Premier Championship which gave him a chance to play in the Chess World Cup 2015.

Sethuraman defeated Sanan Sjugirov and compatriot P. Harikrishna in the first two rounds. Sethuraman was the winner of the Asian Chess Championship 2016 and finished second in the Aeroflot Open in 2018 with an impressive record of 6½/9 (+5–1=3).

8. Parimarjan Negi – Highest Ranking – 2671

Parimarjan Negi is the sixth (now seventh) youngest Grandmaster in history, winning the GM title at the age of 3 years, 4 months, and 20 days. Negi, who is currently pursuing his postgraduate studies at MIT, is a mathematics graduate from Stanford. His winning streak started at the age of 9 when he won the Under-10 division in the Asian Youth Chess Championship.

In 2006, he earned his final GM norm by drawing with Russian Grandmaster Ruslan Sherbakov with a score of 6/9. In 2008, Negi won the Philadelphia International Open tournament with an undefeated record and a score of 7/9. After several victories, Negi proved his worth as a formidable opponent in 2012 and 2013, winning the 11th Asian Chess Championship, the Cappelle-la-Grande Open (twice in 2012 and 2013) and regaining his title for the Politiken Cup in 2013 (first won in 2009).

9. Abhijeet Gupta – Highest Ranking – 2612

 

Abhijeet is the first player to have won the Commonwealth Chess Championship 5 times. He was crowned Grandmaster in 2007. On 15 August 2008, he won the World Junior Chess Championship in Gaziantep, Turkey, beating several other strong players including Maxim Rodshtein, David Howell, and Hou Yifan. He is the third Indian to win this prestigious championship after Viswanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna.

In 2020, Gupta won the 8th Delhi International Open with a score of 8.5/10. Abhijeet Gupta played for the Indian national team at the 2012 Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey, where he won the individual silver medal.

10. Sandipan Chanda – Highest Ranking – 2656

 

Sandipan Chanda, from the Indian state of West Bengal, won his Grandmaster title in 2003. In 2004 he won the Curaçao Chess Festival with 7.5/9, half a point ahead of Alexander Shabalov. He played for India in the Chess Olympiads of 2004, 2006 and 2008. He had a notable win over Sergei Tiviakov in a tournament in Ottawa in 2007, playing as White, which was selected for inclusion in John Nunn’s The Mammoth Book of the World’s Greatest Chess Games.

He was Viswanathan Anand’s second match for the World Chess Championship 2013. In 2016 and 2017 he won the Open Dutch Chess Championship.

11. Arvind Chithambaram – Highest Ranking – 2641

A two-time winner of the Indian Chess Championship (2018, 2019), Arvind learned to play chess at the age of seven from his maternal grandfather, who introduced the 7-year-old to the game to inspire him to take up the sport. Arvind won the Indian Under 19 Chess Championship at the age of 12. He participated in the World Under 14 Chess Championship in 2012, finishing second to Kayden Troff.

He won his first major tournament in 2013 when he scored 9/11 for a performance rating of 2728 at the Chennai Grandmaster International Open, defeating four Grandmasters and two International Masters in the process. This result earned him his first Grandmaster norm; at that time he had not achieved any of his International Master norms. He earned his International Master title in 2014 and his Grandmaster title in 2015.

12. SL Narayanan – Highest Ranking – 2626

The 23-year-old Narayanan started his career at the age of 9, winning the Under-9 Kerala State Championship in 2007. The first time Narayanan played against a Grandmaster was during the Parsvnath Open Chess Tournament in Delhi in January 2010, Narayanan got a walkover as his first-round opponent and third seed Ehsan Maghami Gham could not turn up on time due to a delayed flight. When asked, Narayanan said, “It is only fair to give him a chance; also it is a great thing to be able to play with a GM.”

Narayanan won the silver medal for the Under 12 category in the Commonwealth Chess Championship held in Delhi in May 2010. In that tournament, he played a draw with Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi and won over WIM Kiran Manisha Mohanty, when he was just 12 years old. He finished fourth in the Commonwealth Chess 2019 held in New Delhi. Narayanan qualified for the Chess World Cup 2019. On 12 April 2020, Narayanan faced Magnus Carlsen in the semi-finals of the Chess24 Banter Blitz Cup.

13. Koneru Humpy – Highest Ranking – 2623

The reigning Women’s World Rapid Champion became the youngest woman to achieve the title of Grandmaster in 2002 at the age of 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, beating Judit Polgar’s previous record by three months (this record was later broken by Hou Yifan in 2008). In October 2007, Koneru became the second female player to cross the 2600 Elo rating mark, after Polgar, who had a rating of 2606.

In 2002, she became the eighth Woman Grandmaster in the world. In 2005, she won the North Urals Cup, a round-robin tournament featuring the ten strongest female players in the world at the time.

She participated in the Women’s World Chess Championship for the first time in 2004 and since then, she has taken part in every edition of the event held with a knockout format. Koneru participated in the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2009–2011 and finished second overall, after which she qualified as a challenger for the Women’s World Chess Championship 2011.

Koneru was also the runner-up in the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix series in the 2011–12, 2013–14 and 2015–16 editions. She won individual bronze in the Women’s World Team Chess Championship 2015. In 2019, she became the Women’s World Rapid Champion after coming back from a two-year maternity leave. In 2020, Koneru won the BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year award following a public vote.

14. Nihal Sarin – Highest Ranking – 2620

Still in his teens, Nihal is a talented chess player. He achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 14. He is also the fourth youngest player in history to cross the Elo rating mark of 2600, achieving this feat at the age of 14. Nihal was the World Under-10 Champion in Durban, South Africa in 2014.

Nihal won the gold medal as part of the Indian team at the 2020 FIDE Chess Olympiad held online. He won the Under-18 World Youth Championship held online in rapid format in 2020. In 2019, at the age of 15, Nihal became the youngest Indian to play in the World Cup 2019, where he managed to reach the second round.

Nihal started playing competitive chess in mid-2011, at the age of seven. He is a product of regular FIDE-rated tournaments held in his home state of Kerala and other parts of India. Nihal was an integral part of the Indian chess team that won the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020. On April 19, 2021, 19 participants competed against reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen in the blitz format, with 3 minutes allotted per move without any time increment. Nihal was one of the two out of the 19 participants who were able to defeat Carlsen in the event.

This game marked Nihal’s first win against the world champion in an official event. Nihal had previously defeated Carlsen in an unofficial online blitz game on May 27, 2020, prompting the world champion to remark that Nihal is “one of the young players” and “one of the finest blitz players.”

In his effort to popularise the game of chess at the grassroots level, Nihal also occasionally performs synchronized exhibitions.

15. Karthikeyan Murali – Highest Ranking – 2617

Two-time national champion Karthikeyan Murali was awarded the title of Grandmaster in 2015. He started learning chess at the age of 5. In December 2011 he won the Under 12 category of the World Youth Chess Championship.

In 2014 he finished third in the Abu Dhabi Masters tournament and helped the Indian team win the Under 16 Chess Olympiad in Gyor, Hungary. In this latter competition, he also fulfilled all the requirements for the Grandmaster title. Known for making brilliant comebacks and winning from hopeless situations, Murali also thrives under pressure.

In 2015, Karthikeyan won India’s 53rd National Premier Chess Championship defeating Vidit Santosh Gujrathi in straight sets, with both scoring 8½ points in 13 games. Karthikeyan also won the 54th edition of the championship held in Lucknow in 2016. Though he had a slow start and lost the match against eventual runner-up Arvind Chithambaram, a crucial win on time control against top seed Vidit Santosh Gujrathi followed by a double clearance helped him gain the lead and eventually win the championship.

In January 2019, Karthikeyan finished second in the Gibraltar Masters Open tournament among over 250 players. In June 2019, he finished second in the Asian Championships with the help of a win with black against Alireza Firouzja in which Karthikeyan sacrificed his queen on the 9th move.

16. Geetha Narayanan Gopal – Highest Ranking – 2611

Gopal created history at the age of 18 by becoming the first Grandmaster from his state Kerala and he was also the 16th Grandmaster of India. Gopal started playing chess at the age of 10. He was taught chess by his father. He won his first national championship in Chandigarh in 2001. He became the National Junior Champion (Under-20) in 2004 at the age of 15.

He won his first international championship in his first international appearance in 2003 at the Dubai Juniors, Dubai. His Team India won the bronze medal in the prestigious World Team Chess Championship in 2010. In 2007, he received the Tigran Mets Medal from the Republic of Armenia during Lake Sevan 2007, where they were joint winners.

17. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa – Highest Ranking – 2608

The 16-year-old Praggnanandhaa is a talented chess player. He is the fifth youngest player to achieve the title of Grandmaster (GM) after Abhimanyu Mishra, Sergey Karjakin, Gukesh D, and Javokhir Sindarov.

Pragnanandhaa won the World Youth Chess Championship Under-8 title in 2013, earning him the title of FIDE Master at the age of 7. He won the Under-10 title in 2015. In 2016, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest International Master in history at the age of 10 years, 10 months, and 19 days.

On 23 June 2018, he achieved his third and final Grandmaster norm at the Gradino Open by defeating Luca Moroni in the eighth round, at the age of 12 years, 10 months, and 13 days, becoming the second youngest person to achieve the rank of Grandmaster (Karjakin achieved the title at the age of 12 years and 7 months), while Abhimanyu Mishra achieved the feat at 12 years, four months and 25 days.

In December 2019, he became the second youngest person to achieve a 2600 Elo rating. He achieved this feat at the age of 14 years, 3 months, and 24 days. In April 2021, he finished 10th with a score of 7/15 (+4-5=6), including wins against Teimour Radjabov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Sergey Karjakin and Johann-Sebastian Christiansen, and a draw against World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour.

18. Vaibhav Suri – Highest Ranking – 2600

Vaibhav Suri became an International Master in 2010. Vaibhav Suri became one of the youngest GMs in the world in 2012, the same age as the legend Bobby Fischer. Vaibhav secured the GM title with a win at the Luque Open in Lille, France, scoring 7.5/9 (TPR, an astonishing 2780). Vaibhav built on his 2012 successes to place second at the 2013 Delhi Open, half a point behind Alexey Alexandrov and tied with Marat Djumaev and Heinrich Teske, scoring 7.5/10, his only loss coming against Alexandrov.

He followed up strongly with a second-place finish with 7/9 at the International Open in de Lille, France, in April, gaining 20 rating points. Vaibhav started the year with 6/10 at the Delhi Open in January 2014 and finished second with 7.5/10 at the 6th KIIT International GM Open – 2014 held in India in May 2014. He scored a strong 6/9 at the Abu Dhabi Masters in August, adding 15 points to his rating for October.

19. Abhimanyu Puranik – Highest Ranking – 2598

Puranik became a Grandmaster (GM) in 2017 and is rated 2440 in the Rapid category, 2460 in Blitz and 2584 in Classical. The first memorable moment of his chess career came when he became a Candidate Master (CM) in 2010, then, he proved his talent by becoming an International Master (IM) in 2015. He was also the World Junior silver medalist in 2018 behind Param Maghsoodloo.

20. Deep Sengupta – Highest Ranking – 2527

Deep is the 22nd player from India to be awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE. In 2000, he won the World Youth Chess Championship in the Under 12 category. He also won titles in seven international rating and GM tournaments around the world, including Dubai and Bangladesh. He has been Commonwealth champion in the Under-12, Under-14, and Under-16 categories and has won six national titles.

For his final Grandmaster Norm in 2010, Deep scored seven out of a possible nine points and finished third on tiebreakers. He lost only one game to the eventual champion, French Grandmaster Gharamian Tigran (rating 2609) in the third round and, in the final rounds, he conceded two draws to Song Julien and Bauer Christian.

21. Mr Lalith Babu – Highest Ranking – 2594

Mr Lalith Babu was awarded the Grandmaster title by FIDE in 2012 when he was 19 years old. Lalith Babu won the silver medal in the Asian Junior Chess Championship in 2008 and was consequently awarded the International Master title. Babu emerged as the strongest player at the Leiden Championship 2009 in the Netherlands, defeating some big names like GM Van den Doel and Savchenko during the tournament.

22. Magesh Chandran Panchanathan – Highest Ranking – 2586

Magesh Chandran Panchanathan was awarded the Grandmaster title by FIDE in 2006.

Asian Junior Chess Championship in Sri Lanka in 2003. In 2005 he tied for first place with Kamil Miton in the 33rd World Open played in Philadelphia on the Independence Day weekend.

The same year he came first in the UTD GM Invitational Tournament. In 2008 he tied for third-sixth place with Nguyen Anh Dung, Sadikin Irwanto, and Susanto Megarton in the Kuala Lumpur Open. In 2009 he tied for 1st–4th with Alexander Areshchenko, Koneru Humpy, and Evgenij Miroshnichenko in the Mumbai Mayor’s Cup, and tied for 3rd–6th with Vladimir Malaniuk, David Smerdon, Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury in the 2010 Doberl Cup in Canberra.

In 2011 he tied for second-fourth place with Tigran L. Petrosian and Abhijeet Gupta in the 3rd Orissa International GM Open Chess Tournament and tied for third place in Berkeley. In 2012 he won the Philadelphia Open outright with 7/9 points.

In 2015 he tied with Sergey Azarov in the New Jersey Open tournament held in Morristown; both players scored 5/6 points.

23. Aryan Chopra – Highest Ranking – 2585

 

Aryan Chopra is an Indian chess player who became a Grandmaster in 2016 at the age of 14 years, 9 months and 3 days. He was officially awarded the title by FIDE in 2017. He became the second youngest Indian to become a Grandmaster after Parimarjan Negi.

He is currently the fifth youngest Grandmaster from India. He started playing chess at the age of 6, when an accident forced him to remain indoors. Chopra was part of the world team that defeated the US team 30.5-17.5 at the 2017 Millennials Match held in St. Louis. He played in the under-17 section and scored 3.5/6 to help the world team win the section 19-13.

Chopra finished third in the 2017 Abu Dhabi Chess Masters tournament behind winner Amin Bassem and runner-up Nigel Short. He defeated several grandmasters and scored 22 Elo points to score 6.5/9. He concluded the tournament with a notable win with the black pieces over GM Levan Pantulaya of Georgia.

24. Diptayan Ghosh – Highest Ranking – 2581

Diptayan qualified as a Grandmaster at the age of 17 after achieving his third and final norm required for the title at the HD Bank International Chess Open tournament in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in March 2016.

Ghosh won the gold medal at the Asian Youth Chess Championships in the Under 10 category in 2008 and in the Under 12 category in 2009. He was a member of the gold medal-winning Indian team at the World Youth Under-16 Chess Olympiad in 2013 and 2014.

25. Arjun Erigaisi – Highest Ranking – 2575

Arjun Erigaisi achieved the title of Grandmaster in 2018 at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 13 days. He thus became the 32nd youngest person to achieve the title of Grandmaster. He is also the 54th GM of India. He is one of the fastest players to achieve IM and GM norms within a year.

Known to be very good in his mid and end game, Arjun is considered one of the finest young players to emerge from his state. He also won a silver medal at the 2015 Asian Youth Championship in Korea. He is one of the greatest players of the top 25 Indian chess players so far.

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