17-year-old Aditya Samant has become India’s 83rd Grandmaster following his match against Aryan Chopra in the ninth round of the Biel Chess Festival. Having completed his first two Grandmaster norms at the Abu Dhabi Masters and the El Llobregat Opens respectively, the young player only had to play the match to earn his third and final norm before being conferred the prestigious title of Grandmaster. The player from Maharashtra becomes the third Indian to complete their GM norms at the Biel Chess Festival, following Harshit Raja in 2021 and Pranav Anand in 2022. 


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At the Biel Chess Festival Samant drew China’s Bu Xiangzhi in the eighth round and only had to play his match against Chopra to earn the third norm, the result did not matter. In order to achieve the rank of Grandmaster, a player must cross 2500 ELO in the live rankings and earn three norms. Samant had a rating of 2525.4 going into the ninth round with two norms. 


The Biel Chess Festival account on Twitter congratulated Samant and remarked that the festival had a growing history of Indian grandmasters being crowned. It read, “Exciting! Congratulations to Aditya Samant S!#BielChess seems to be a good place to crown Indian Grandmasters! - 2021 it was @HarshitRaja1 who earned his 3rd GM-norm in Biel - 2022 it was @GMPranavAnand who earned his 3rd GM-norm in Biel - and 2023 now Aditya Samant S!”



India sees growt h in young Chess Talent


Chess in India has a bright future, as the country sees more and more upcoming talent earn the title of Grandmaster. Indian players are also starting to be ranked among the youngest grandmasters in the world. Notably, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa was the second youngest grandmaster of all time, earning all three norms at only age twelve. 

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India’s current youngest grandmaster is Bharath Subramaniyam. While Vishwanathan Anand is still the country’s highest-ranked player and has achieved the highest peak rating of any Indian player at 2817, up-and-coming player Gukesh Dommaraju is making his way up the list of super grandmasters and is currently ranked thirteenth in the world with a FIDE rating of 2744.