Anuj Shrivatri became India’s 100th chess Grandmaster on November 8 by winning the 7th ASEAN+ Individual Open in the Philippines, according to PTI, Chess.com and Khel Now.
The path is unusual. Chess.com, citing the Indian Express, reports that Shrivatri worked as a software engineer for a German firm before leaving to play chess full time, having learned the game at seven and become an International Master at 15.
For anyone weighing a risky switch, the result shows what a full-time commitment can produce, though it also took a recovery from a first-round loss to win the event with 7 points from 9.
The aim, according to an interview cited by Chess.com, is to cross a rating of 2600.
Shrivatri finished half a point ahead of Grandmaster Nguyen Duc Hoa of Vietnam, and Filipino FIDE Master Alekhine Nouri took third place on tiebreak with 6 out of 9, according to Chess.com.
Shrivatri was seeded fourth with a rating of 2450, and Vietnamese International Master Nguyen Quoc Hy was the top seed at 2474, according to Chess.com.
The ASEAN Plus winner gets the Grandmaster title directly, so the usual requirements of three norms and a 2500 rating did not apply, according to Chess.com and Khel Now.
Shrivatri came into the event with one Grandmaster norm, earned in Budapest last November, according to Chess.com.
Shrivatri is the first Grandmaster from Madhya Pradesh, according to Khel Now and other reports.
The Bridge, Chess.com and Khel Now give Shrivatri’s age as 22, while one other outlet gives it as 20, so the age differs by report.
Viswanathan Anand became India’s first Grandmaster in 1988, nearly four decades earlier, according to the reports.
Anand wrote on X that it was a cracker of a 100, according to Chess.com.
All India Chess Federation president Nitin Narang congratulated Shrivatri on becoming India’s 100th Grandmaster, according to the reports.
Playing chess in a park (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0