Who is Anuj Shrivatri? Meet India’s 100th Chess Grandmaster from MP; 38 yrs after Viswanathan Anand became India’s first
Madhya Pradesh’s International Master Anuj Shrivatri became India’s 100th Grandmaster after winning the 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open Chess Championship on Sunday. The 22-year-old Anuj scored seven out of the possible eight points after losing the first game at the tournament at the Asenso Global Youth Leadership and Sports Complex.
The legendary Vishwanathan Anand was India’s first-ever GM as he won the title in 1988 after earning his third norm in 1987. India got its last five GMs — from 96th to 100th between July, 2026 to November 2026 in a space of just five months. Ethan Vaz, Harshvardhan GB, S Ashwath and V Rathnavel were awarded GM titles just before Anuj.
The achievement was particularly significant as chess enthusiasts in India had been awaiting the country’s 100th Grandmaster, while Madhya Pradesh had been waiting for its first player to earn the prestigious title.
Anuj Shrivatri – All you need to know
Shrivatri took up chess at the age of seven in 2011. he initially trained under his first coach VK Tiwari, who played an important role in shaping Shrivatri’s understanding of the game. He later trained under Nilkesh Jain, who eventually went on to become Shrivatri’s mentor.
Shrivatri has always been a good student at school. He emerged as school topper before pursuing a degree in Bachelors of Technology (BTech) at Lovely Professional University. Shrivatri specialised in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning.
Shrivatri secured a job as a software engineer with a German fiorm and worked from home in Madhya Pradesh initially. Later he was offered to move to Germany at the company’s base, but Shrivatri decided to pursue his dreams on the 64 squares, as reported by The Indian Express.
Shrivatri would have become a GM earlier, after he became the International Master in 2020 at the age of 19. But the COVID-19 pandemic halted all his plans as the whole world was brought to a standstill. By the time everything came into place, his other commitments, including his day job had taken priority at that time.
Viswanathan Anand says ‘cracker of a 100’
Five-time world chess champion Anand congratulated Shrivatri on his achievement and describing is as a “cracker of a 100.” In an X post, Anand said, “Happy Diwali. A cracker of a 100. Congrats to @AnujShrivatri on getting India to this milestone.”
“Funnily only today I was thinking December 2027 will be the 40th anniversary of my GM title and literally this manifested,” added Anand.
