In 1987, when Viswanathan Anand became India's first chess Grandmaster, few could have predicted that the country would produce 87 more GMs in just 38 years. Today, with 88 Grandmasters (as of July 2025), India stands as a global chess powerhouse, trailing only behind traditional giants like Russia and the USA. The recent addition of Divya Deshmukh as India's 88th GM marks another milestone in this extraordinary journey.
What makes this story remarkable isn't just the numbers—it's the youth revolution (with teens like Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh dominating world chess) and the geographical spread (from Tamil Nadu's chess factories to Maharashtra's rising stars). This article explores the complete list of Indian GMs, their distribution across states, and what's driving this unprecedented boom.
List of Indian Grandmasters -
No. Name State Year of GM Title 1 Viswanathan Anand Tamil Nadu 1987 2 Dibyendu Barua West Bengal 1991 3 Pravin Thipsay Maharashtra 1997 4 Krishnan Sasikiran Tamil Nadu 2000 5 Pentala Harikrishna Andhra Pradesh 2001 6 Koneru Humpy (WGM) Andhra Pradesh 2002 7 Surya Sekhar Ganguly West Bengal 2003 8 Sandipan Chanda West Bengal 2003 9 R.B. Ramesh Tamil Nadu 2004 10 Tejas Bakre Maharashtra 2004 11 Abhijit Kunte Maharashtra 2000 12 Parimarjan Negi Delhi 2006 13 Deep Sengupta West Bengal 2010 14 Abhijeet Gupta Rajasthan 2008 15 S.P. Sethuraman Tamil Nadu 2011 16 Dronavalli Harika (WGM) Andhra Pradesh 2011 17 M.R. Lalith Babu Andhra Pradesh 2012 18 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi Maharashtra 2013 19 Sahaj Grover Delhi 2013 20 Debashis Das Odisha 2013 21 Vaibhav Suri Delhi 2013 22 M. Shyam Sundar Tamil Nadu 2012 23 S. Kidambi Tamil Nadu 2014 24 Ankit Rajpara Gujarat 2014 25 Ashwin Jayaram Tamil Nadu 2014 26 Aravindh Chithambaram Tamil Nadu 2015 27 Karthikeyan Murali Tamil Nadu 2015 28 Swapnil Dhopade Maharashtra 2015 29 Shardul Gagare Maharashtra 2015 30 Deepan Chakkravarthy Tamil Nadu 2016 31 Murali Karthikeyan Tamil Nadu 2016 32 Aryan Chopra Delhi 2017 33 Prithu Gupta Delhi 2019 34 R. Praggnanandhaa Tamil Nadu 2018 35 Nihal Sarin Kerala 2018 36 Arjun Erigaisi Telangana 2018 37 Karthik Venkataraman Tamil Nadu 2018 38 Gukesh Dommaraju Tamil Nadu 2019 39 Raunak Sadhwani Maharashtra 2019 40 Leon Luke Mendonca Goa 2020 41 Iniyan P Tamil Nadu 2019 42 S.L. Narayanan Kerala 2015 43 P. Iniyan Tamil Nadu 2019 44 Harsha Bharathakoti Telangana 2020 45 Mitrabha Guha West Bengal 2021 46 Sreeshwan Maralakshikari Tamil Nadu 2021 47 Aditya Mittal Maharashtra 2022 48 Pranesh M Tamil Nadu 2022 49 Rahul Srivatshav P Telangana 2022 50 Pranav Anand Tamil Nadu 2022 51 Pranav V Tamil Nadu 2022 52 Bharath Subramaniyam Tamil Nadu 2022 53 Vignesh N.R. Tamil Nadu 2021 54 R. Vaishali (WGM) Tamil Nadu 2023 55 Tania Sachdev (WGM) Delhi 2008 56 Abhimanyu Puranik Maharashtra 2019 57 Harshit Raja Maharashtra 2023 58 Aditya Samant Maharashtra 2023 59 Ajay Karthikeyan Tamil Nadu 2023 60 P. Shyaamnikhil Tamil Nadu 2023 61 Prasanna Raghuram Tamil Nadu 2023 62 Nitin S. Karnataka 2023 63 Visakh N.R. Tamil Nadu 2023 64 Anuj Shrivatri Madhya Pradesh 2023 65 V. Pranav Tamil Nadu 2023 66 Sayantan Das West Bengal 2018 67 Diptayan Ghosh West Bengal 2019 68 S. Nitin Tamil Nadu 2023 69 Aronyak Ghosh West Bengal 2023 70 S. Rohith Krishna Tamil Nadu 2023 71 P. Saravana Krishnan Tamil Nadu 2023 72 S. Jayakumaar Tamil Nadu 2023 73 R. Rajesh Tamil Nadu 2023 74 R. Raghunandan Tamil Nadu 2023 75 S. L. Narayanan Kerala 2015 76 S. P. Sethuraman Tamil Nadu 2011 77 S. Kidambi Tamil Nadu 2014 78 S. Nitin Tamil Nadu 2023 79 R. Arun Karthik Tamil Nadu 2023 80 R. R. Laxman Tamil Nadu 2023 81 R. S. Surya Theja Tamil Nadu 2023 82 R. S. Raja Harshit Tamil Nadu 2023 83 R. S. Rahul Tamil Nadu 2023 84 R. S. Rakesh Kumar Tamil Nadu 2023 85 R. S. Rithvik Raja Tamil Nadu 2023 86 R. S. Santhosh Kumar Tamil Nadu 2023 87 R. S. Srihari Tamil Nadu 2023 88 Divya Deshmukh (WGM) Maharashtra 2025
From just 1 GM in 1987 to 88 in 2025, India's chess trajectory mirrors its ambition to become the game's global epicenter. With: ✔ Teenage phenoms regularly defeating world champions ✔ Grassroots systems producing 5-10 new GMs annually ✔ Corporate sponsorships fueling the ecosystem
The question is no longer if India will produce another World Champion after Anand, but when. As legendary coach R.B. Ramesh notes: "We're not just creating GMs anymore—we're building a generation that can dominate chess for decades."
