India has emerged as a breeding ground for world renowned chess players. The country has produced several grandmasters. Let us have a look India’s top young chess Grandmasters:
Gukesh D
Gukesh Dommaraju, also known as Gukesh D, became the youngest ever Indian player to become a Grandmaster. He learned to play Chess at the age of 7. He started playing tournaments after his talent was recognized by chess teachers.
The 17-year-old won the 2024 Candidates Tournament making him the youngest contender to compete for the title of World Chess Champion.
He was declared Player of the Year by the Asian Chess Federation.
He is ranked no.6 presently by FIDE.
Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabhu
Praggnanandhaa, one of India’s top chess Grandmasters is a household name in India. He won the World Youth Chess Championship Under-8 title in 2013, earning him the title of FIDE master. In 2015, he won the under-10 title.
He was honored with the Arjuna Award by the Indian government in the year 2022.
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The 18-year-old is currently ranked at world no 13 by FIDE.
Also Read: Praggnanandhaa: India’s Chess Wizard
Arjun Erigaisi
Indian chess player Arjun Erigaisi earned the title of grandmaster at the age of 14 years.
The chess prodigy is currently the highest ranked chess player from India at no. 8. He is the 54th grandmaster from India. He won the 2022 Indian National Championship.
In April 2024, Arjun won Menorca Open A on superior tie-break score after he tied with 2 others with a score of 7.5/9. He scaled the top 5 in live world ranking briefly during that tournament.
Raunak Sadhwani
A chess prodigy, Raunak Sadhwani achieved the title of Grandmaster at age 13. He is the 9th youngest player in history and the 4th youngest Indian to become a Grandmaster.
Raunak was U-10 Commonwealth Champion in 2015, New Delhi. He was part of the second team from India that reached the third place in the open tournament 2022 Chess Olympiad.
Nihal Sarin
Nihal Sarin, passed the Elo rating of 2600 at 14 years old, in 2018, making him the third youngest player in history to do so.
The Chess Grandmaster became the World Under-10 champion in 2014. He won the Gold Medal as part of the Indian team in the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020.
Also Read: Why do men and women have different competitions in Chess?
The Chess prodigy won the U-18 World Youth Championship held online in rapid format in 2020.
Nihal began learning chess at the age of six. Nihal was the 2013 National Under-9 Champion. He won the gold medal in the World Blitz Championship in the Under-10 category.
The 19-year-old clinched a gold medal in Rapid and Blitz in the Asian Youth Championship in Tashkent in 2014 in the same category.
He was crowned the Under-10 World Champion September 2014 after which he was also conferred the Candidate Master (CM) title by FIDE.
