India’s first Grandmaster, Viswanathan Anand, got the title in 1988.
The 96th to 100th Grandmasters were added between July and November 2026.
Anuj Shrivatri’s win in the Philippines gave India its 100th.
Shrivatri is the first from Madhya Pradesh.
ChessBase India’s Sagar Shah predicts 200 Grandmasters by 2032.
Shrivatri lost the opening game and recovered to finish alone in first place with 7 points from 9 games, according to Chess.com.
Reports differ on the score: The Bridge says seven out of a possible eight points, and Khel Now gives both 7 out of 8 and 7 points from 9 games, so the 7 out of 9 figure from Chess.com is used here.
After the opening-round loss, Shrivatri was unbeaten with six wins and two draws and won the final two rounds, according to Chess.com.
A final-round win over International Master James Morris of Australia clinched the title, according to Chess.com.
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.
Playing chess in a park (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
