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Indian chess players who brought glory to the country with every move

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Smrithi Mohan
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Indian chess players

India has a bunch of sports personalities who are making the country proud. Take a look at these Indian chess players checkmating their way to glory.

Chess is a game of great strategy and immense patience. A game that originated in India centuries ago, passed on to Europe and other countries. It is a tactical game that requires two players; millions of people now play this game. Each player starts with 16 pieces, with each piece having its own way of moving forward. It includes one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. Since it is a huge part of the culture, we also have a number of Indian chess players who have made a name for themselves on the global level.

The popularity of the game increased in India especially in 1988 after the country got its first Grandmaster, Viswanathan Anand. Many young players found their inspiration from him and followed his footsteps making their moves at the international level.

Take a look at these Indian chess players:

Viswanathan Anand

He is India's first grandmaster who remained India’s sole representative in the elite world of international chess by winning the World Championship five times.

Koneru Humpy

She is not only the youngest woman to win a grandmaster but is also India's current Women's World Rapid Chess champion. Koneru gained her position after exceeding Judit Polgár's record of 2600 Elo rating mark.

Pentala Harikrishna

Youngest grandmaster Pentala was Commonwealth Champion in 2001, World Junior Champion in 2004 and Asian Individual Champion in 2011.

Baskaran Adhiban

He was the 2008 World Under-16 Champion and the 2009 Indian champion. He has also played on the first board for the gold medal-winning Indian team at the Under-16 Chess Olympiad of 2007 and 2008

Swayams Mishra

Swayams holds two grandmasters in 2014 and 2015. He got his third and final GM norm at the Polonia Wroclaw Master Cup which took place in Wrocław, Poland.

Raunak Sadhwani

He has six draws and one win against seven opponents above the Elo of 2650 and also held Sergey Karjakin to an easy draw with black, 13-year-old Raunak Sadhwani became India's 65th in 2019

Prithu Gupta

Winning his Grandmaster norm at the Gibraltar Masters last year, achieved his second norm at the Biel Masters the same year. He got the final norm at the Porticcio Open earlier this month.

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BREAKING NEWS! India gets its 64th GM - Prithu Gupta The first chess board of Indian chess has been completed as Prithu Gupta becomes India's 64th GM! Prithu achieved his first GM norm at the Gibraltar Masters 2018, the second one at the Biel Masters 2018 and the final one at the Porticcio Open 2019. At the fifth round of the Portugese League 2019, Prithu beat GM Lev Yankelevich and crossed the Elo threshold of 2500. Born on 8th March 2004, Prithu has achieved this feat of becoming a GM at the tender age of 15 years, 4 months and 10 days old. He lives in Delhi and is one of India's finest young talents. Prithu started playing chess at the age of 9 years which is quite late by today's standards. He got a rating of 1187 when he was 10 years old. In the next five years, the boy has gained nearly 1300 Elo points and has become a GM! The boy also has excellent results in his academics and does a commendable job of balancing his chess and education. A big congratulations to Prithu, his family and his entire team for this tremendous achievement. Photo: Reykjavik Open 2019 #chess #chessbaseindia #64thgm #64 #grandmaster #achiever #winner #prithugupta #delhi #talent #prodigy

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Gukesh D

In March 2019, Gukesh became the second youngest person in history to qualify for the title of Grandmaster. He won the Under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championships in 2015<6> and the World Youth Chess Championships in 2018 in the Under 12 category.

P. Iniyan

He is an Indian chess player who received his first GM norm in June 2007. He is also India's 61st player to be awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE.

Tania Sachdev

She was felicitated with India’s most prestigious sports awards Arjuna Award in 2009. She is the eighth Indian player to have been awarded the Woman Grandmaster title in 2005.

Arjun Erigaisi

He won the title of grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 13 days making him the 32nd youngest person ever to achieve the title of grandmaster.

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India gets its 54th GM - Arjun Erigasi! It's simply unbelievable what this young lad from Telangana has achieved. He becomes a GM at the age of 14 years 11 months and 13 days. The boy did not even have a single IM norm when 2018 began. He achieved his first IM norm at the IIFLW Mumbai 2018, second one at the Aeroflot Open 2018 in Russia and the third one at the HD Bank in Vietnam in Hanoi in March. In the Kolkata GM International 2018 in May Arjun scored his first GM norm and also crossed 2500. He scored his second GM in a closed round robin event in Serbia. The third and the final GM norm came with a win at the last round in the Abu Dhabi Masters 2018. Within eight months the boy has gone from having no norms to achieving six norms (three IM and three GM norms). Arjun is a clear case of improving your strength without worrying about the results. Once the level was there, the results just kept coming! Heartiest congratulations to Arjun, his family and his coach Victor Mikhalevski. After Praggnanandhaa R. became India's 52nd GM, Nihal Sarin became 53rd, it is now time for us to applaud the efforts of Arjun Erigaisi as he becomes the 54th GM of our country! Photos: Amruta Mokal #chess #chessbaseindia #arjunerigaisi #prodigy #54thgmofindia #grandmaster #adchesafestival

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Nihal Sarin

Crossing the Elo rating mark of 2600, he achieved the title of Grandmaster at age 14. He is also the third-youngest player in history to win the GM.

Also Read: Here’s how Indian chess player Tania Sachdev checkmates all her hurdles towards success

India sports Board games classic chess Indian Sports Personality sports in india Tania Sachdev Arjun Erigaisi Baskaran Adhiban board game chess chess chess players Gukesh D indian board game Indian chess players international chess day Koneru Humpy Nihal Sarin P. Iniyan Pentala Harikrishna Prithu Gupta Raunak Sadhwani Swayams Mishra Viswanathan Anand