It all began with a boy from Madras in 1988. Thirty-eight years after Viswanathan Anand became the country’s first grandmaster, Indian chess touched a historic milestone.

Anuj Shrivatri becomes India’s 100th grandmaster. (ChessbaseIndia X)

Anuj Shrivatri of Madhya Pradesh won the 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open Chess Championship on Sunday to become India’s 100th grandmaster.

“I think it’s a remarkable milestone, the pace especially says a lot,” Anand told HT. “I think we were at 30 grandmasters 15 years ago. I remember distinctly, just before the Chennai Olympiad, I was thinking, well, if during the 2022 Olympiad, we became 75, that would be nice, because it would match the year of our independence. Four years later, we are at 100. It’s a nice moment to sit back and feel satisfied.”

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Anand’s defining role in Indian chess’s rise and dominance bears mention. He arrived on the chess scene when it was a Soviet bastion. He went on to become a five-time world champion and spurred generations of Indians to take up chess as a career.

During the pandemic Anand set up his academy, WACA, which offers training assistance to the country’s brightest names in chess. Reigning world champion, Gukesh, is its product.

It took nearly a decade for India’s count of grandmasters to go from one to three. The numbers swelled significantly from 2020, with nine grandmasters added this year alone.