International Chess Day 2022: Top 10 Indian grand masters

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Viswanathan Anand | World Ranking: 12 | Viswanathan Anand is the greatest Indian chess player of all time. In 1988, Anand became India's first grandmaster.  Anand is also a five-time world chess champion. Anand is only the fourth chess player to have surpassed an Elo rating of 2800. He achieved the feat in 2006 which put him alongside Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov and Garry Kasparov. (Image: Reuters)

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Harikrishna Pentala | World Ranking: 25 | Harikrishna Pentala is one of India’s best players for his age in his youth. As a child, Pentala won Indian under-08, under-10, under-14, under-15 and under-18 titles. In September 2001 he became India's youngest grandmaster. When Pentala became a grandmaster he was the seventh-youngest grandmaster at that time. In the same year, he became the Commonwealth Champion too. Pentala was crowned the World Junior Champion in 2004 and seven years later he became the Asian Individual Champion.  (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

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Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | World Ranking: 28 | Vidit Gujrathi is an Indian super grandmaster. He was the 30th player from India to become a grandmaster. As a boy he won the under-14 world championship, In 2018 he won the Tata Steel Challengers. The next year he won the 2019 Biel tournament. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

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Erigaisi Arjun | World Ranking: 46 | Arjun Erigaisi became a GM in 2018 when he was just 14. He was also the runner-up in the under-14 division at the 2017 World Youth Chess Championship. This year he won the 2022 Tata Steel Challengers tournament with a 10.5/14 score. Arjun is also the reigning senior national champion having claimed the title in March. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

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Gukesh D | World Ranking: 54 | Indian teenage chess star Gukesh D is the third youngest person in history to qualify for the title of grandmaster. Gukesh achieved the feat in March 2019. Last week he became only the sixth Indian to cross the coveted 2700 Elo rating barrier.  (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

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SL Narayanan | World Ranking: 89 | is India's 41st grandmaster. He earned the title of grandmaster in 2015. Narayanan won the Asian U-16 title in 2012 and a gold medal in the Asian Junior Blitz Chess Championship in 2016. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

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Nihal Sarin | World ranking: 105 | Nihal Sarin is an Indian chess prodigy who became a grandmaster at the age of 14 and is currently in the top 10 players in his country (as of April 2021). In 2013, Nihal won the U-10 World Blitz Championship. A year later, he won the U-10 World Youth Chess Championship with a score of 9/11. In 2020, Nihal had impressive results. He won Chess.com's Junior Speed Chess Championship, the gold medal as part of the Indian team in the FIDE Chess Olympics, and the U-18 World Youth Championship. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

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Praggnanandhaa R | World ranking: 112 | Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu is an Indian grandmaster and the fifth youngest GM in history. He has won three world youth titles: U8 in 2013, U10 in 2015, and U18 in 2019. He is also famous for defeating current world champion Magnus Carlsen twice. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

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Sasikiran Krishnan | World ranking: 127 | Krishnan Sasikiran is an Indian Grand Master who created a stir by defeating fellow Indian chess player Vishwanathan Anand during the World Cup Chess tournament in 2002. He won the gold medal in the mixed team event in the 2006 Asian Games and followed that with a bronze medal in the mixed team event in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

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Abhijeet Gupta | World Ranking: 146 | Abhijeet Gupta is an Indian chess GM who was the third Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championship in 2008. He also received the “Arjuna Award" in 2013. Gupta is the first player to win the Commonwealth Chess Championship five times (Image: Wikimedia Commons)