Tamil Nadu's Aswath S Becomes India's 98th Chess Grandmaster at Pune International GM Tournament
Aswath S, a 17-year-old from Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, became India's 98th chess Grandmaster after securing his third and final GM norm at the Pune International Grandmaster Round Robin Tournament (30 June-8 July 2026). He finished runner-up with 7 points from 9 rounds, defeating USA's FM Kannan Vaidyanathan with the black pieces in the final round. Abhijeet Gupta won the tournament. Aswath is also Tamil Nadu's 38th Grandmaster. The Grandmaster title is awarded by FIDE and requires three GM norms and a 2500 FIDE rating. India now needs just two more Grandmasters to reach the milestone of 100.
FIDE = International Chess Federation; HQ Lausanne, Switzerland | GM criteria: 3 norms + 2500 rating | India's 1st GM: Viswanathan Anand (1988) | FIDE President: Arkady Dvorkovich