IFTA 2026: India has voted. See the winners.

Anuj Shrivatri, a 22-year-old International Master from Madhya Pradesh, became India’s 100th chess Grandmaster on 8 November 2026 by winning the 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open Chess Championship in the Philippines. The milestone arrives 38 years after Viswanathan Anand became India’s first Grandmaster, and at the end of the fastest run of titles the country has seen: five new Grandmasters since July.

What happened in Ozamiz City

The tournament, held in Ozamiz City in the province of Misamis Occidental, did not start well for Shrivatri. He lost his opening game. Over the next eight rounds he did not lose again, winning six and drawing two to finish on 7 points from 9, alone in first place and half a point ahead of Vietnamese Grandmaster Nguyen Duc Hoa, according to Chess.com. Philippine FIDE Master Alekhine Nouri took third on tiebreak with 6 points.

The title was settled in the last round, when Shrivatri beat Australian International Master James Morris. He went into the event as the fourth seed, rated 2450; the top seed, Vietnam’s Nguyen Quoc Hy, was rated 2474. The win came on Diwali, a detail that several reports picked up on.

Other Indians in the field also finished well. The Week reported that Viani Antonio Dcunha was fourth, Audi Ameya sixth and Ritviz Parab eighth, each on 6 points.

How a 2450-rated player got the title

The usual route to Grandmaster is demanding: a player needs three GM norms (strong performances in qualifying tournaments) and a classical rating of at least 2500. Shrivatri had one norm, earned in Budapest in November 2025, and was rated 50 points below the 2500 mark.

The ASEAN Plus championship is one of a small number of events where the winner is awarded the GM title directly. Chess.com described it as one of the few tournaments where the title comes “regardless of norms” or the 2500 requirement. Open magazine reported that FIDE sets a 2300 rating floor for this direct route, and that All India Chess Federation (AICF) president Nitin Narang confirmed the win qualified Shrivatri for the title.

Shrivatri is from the Katni region and started playing at seven. He became Madhya Pradesh’s youngest International Master in August 2019, aged 15, and finished fourth, unbeaten, at the 2017 World Youth Under-14 Championship. He is now the state’s first Grandmaster.

From one Grandmaster to 100

Anand earned his third norm in 1987 and was awarded the title in 1988, PTI reported. For years the count grew slowly; it took India nine years to go from one Grandmaster to three, according to ESPN.

The pace changed in the last decade and a half. ESPN put India’s total at 25 at the end of 2011. In 2022, on the sidelines of the Chess Olympiad in Chennai, Anand said he hoped India would reach its 75th Grandmaster in the 75th year of Independence. Twenty-five more have been added in the four years since.

2026 has been especially busy. Rathanvel V S, 25, from Coimbatore, became the 99th in July after finally crossing 2500 at the Guwahati Smart City International Open, having completed his three norms back in 2022, DT Next reported. PTI noted that the 96th to 100th titles, which went to Ethan Vaz, Harshvardhan GB, S Ashwath, Rathanvel and Shrivatri, all came between July and November.

Where India ranks

On FIDE’s November 2026 rating list, India has 97 Grandmasters, because the titles of Ethan Vaz and Rathanvel were still awaiting formal confirmation and Shrivatri’s came after the list. Chess.com’s analysis of that list puts India fourth in the world by total Grandmasters, behind Russia (184), the United States (115) and Germany (103).

The count of active players tells a sharper story. India has 74 active Grandmasters, level with Russia and Germany for the most in the world, and ahead of the United States on 73. Chess.com estimated that India could pass Germany’s total in 2027 if the current pace holds.

The Indian group is also young. The median age of India’s active Grandmasters is 26.7. Of the 74 active players, 36 were born in 2000 or later, against 17 born before 1990. Eight Indian Grandmasters are under 20, and the youngest, GM-elect Ethan Vaz, is 15. The oldest, Praveen Thipsay, is 67.

What people said

Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X: “India has hit a century in chess! Exceptional, isn’t it? India is now home to a hundred chess Grandmasters!” He called it “a remarkable milestone that reflects the immense talent, dedication, and hard work of our players,” IANS reported.

Anand, playing on the Diwali timing, called it “a cracker of a 100,” and noted that December 2027 will mark 40 years since his own title. AICF president Nitin Narang’s message ended: “Onwards to 200 Grandmasters!”

Shrivatri kept it simple. “It feels very good to become a GM and that too being (India’s) 100th is also special,” he told The Hindu, as quoted by Chess.com. On what comes next: “I want to cross a 2600 rating, and I want to win as many tournaments as I can.”

He has done much of the work on his own. He trained at different points under coaches including the late V.K. Tiwari, Yashpal Arora, Rajesh Bahadur and Niklesh Jain, but in a 2020 ChessBase interview, cited by The Week, he said he was “happy that I managed to become an IM without a coach,” while adding that he would not recommend that path for everyone. His father, Ashok, told Chess.com what the sport demands: “You need to focus at least eight to nine hours on your chess if you want to chase success in the sport.”

ChessBase India co-founder Sagar Shah, who said India has added about 60 Grandmasters in the nearly 11 years since the site launched, called it “an amazing moment for Indian chess!” He added: “What I am really excited for is the next wave of talents that are coming out from Indian chess.” Shah predicted India would reach 200 Grandmasters by 2032.

Key numbers

100: India’s Grandmasters after Anuj Shrivatri’s title on 8 November 2026
38 years: since Viswanathan Anand became the first, in 1988
25: India’s Grandmaster count at the end of 2011
5: new Indian Grandmasters (96th to 100th) between July and November 2026
7/9: Shrivatri’s score in the Philippines, after losing his first game
2450: his rating going into the event, 50 below the usual 2500 requirement
74: active Indian Grandmasters, joint-most in the world with Russia and Germany
26.7: median age of India’s active Grandmasters

What to watch

The biggest test for Indian chess this year is weeks away. Gukesh Dommaraju defends his world title against Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov in Geneva from 25 November to 15 December. The match is over 14 classical games, and the first player to 7.5 points wins, according to FIDE.

The other numbers to track are on the FIDE lists. Once the pending titles are confirmed, India’s total on the official count will rise from 97, and the gap to Germany’s 103 will narrow. For Shrivatri, the immediate target is his own: a rating of 2600, which would put him among the stronger Indian players rather than just the 100th name on the list.