Aswath becomes India’s 98th GM

Aswath S. needed to win his last three games to achieve the Grandmaster title, and he did so by winning it on demand at the Pune International Round-Robin chess tournament on Wednesday.

With an awesome finish in Pune, the 17-year-old Aswath became India’s 98th GM after beating Kannan Vaidyanathan with black pieces in the final round.

Admitting that he felt some pressure going into the final stretch, he told The Hindu: “I did not think about anything else. I just played the game.”

The tournament was Aswath’s return to classical chess after a break for his Std. X exams. His previous classical event was in December 2025, when he earned his second GM norm at the First Saturday GM Round-Robin in Budapest, winning the event with 7/9.

The first GM norm came earlier in 2025 at the Grenke Open in Germany, where he produced a standout performance to triumph in a strong field.

His chess journey began at home when he was three. His father, A.C. Shiva, was his first coach. Aswath began playing district-level events at the age of four and said his early success was in an under-7 State event in 2015, where he scored nine wins in as many rounds.

He trains under GM M. Shyam Sundar at Chess Thulir Academy in Chennai now and said “(Shyam) sir is a great help and we plan ahead of each game.”

His immediate focus is to improve his Elo rating to 2600 (currently 2517) and overall improvement.

Speaking from Serbia, coach Shyam elaborated: “Aswath is a hardworking, disciplined, motivated and determined player. He doesn’t have any social media distractions. He is fully focused. I think he will continue to grow.”

Aswath’s accomplishment takes Indian chess closer to the 100-GM mark, and it will be a memorable century.