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    India's grandmasters · the road to the title

    Vidit Gujrathi: From Nashik to Grandmaster, Tournament by Tournament

    Vidit Gujrathi took up chess at six because a Nashik cricket club told him to wait a year; his father taught him, and he wanted to beat his dad. At the 2004 national Under-11 he lost twice and wanted to go home, but his coach, IM Anup Deshmukh, talked him into one more round, and he won the title. In 2008 he became India's first world Under-14 champion.

    His three grandmaster norms came in sixteen months: the 2011 World Junior in Chennai, Nagpur in October 2012 and Kolkata in December 2012. FIDE approved the title in January 2013, when he was 18. Since then he has won the 2023 Grand Swiss and Olympiad gold with India.

    Vidit Gujrathi in 2026
    Vidit Gujrathi, 2026. Photo: TheBoburshokh (cropped by SpyroeBM from File:Vidit_Gujrathi_Uzchess_cup_3.jpg), CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, via Wikimedia Commons.
    Born
    24 Oct 1994, Nashik, Maharashtra[1]
    Learned chess
    6, from his father[2]
    Coach at 9
    IM Anup Deshmukh[3]
    Grandmaster
    January 2013, at 18[4]
    Peak rating
    2747 (February 2024)[1]
    Coaches named in sources
    7[2]

    Tournament by tournament: the road to grandmaster

    1. 2001 · age 7

      Local tournaments in Nashik[5]

      Won 'one event after another' on the local circuit

      First competitive results; ChessBase India dates his emergence to Nashik's busy local scene in 2001.

    2. 2004 · age 9

      National Under-11 Championship, Nagpur[6]

      Champion, after losing a couple of early rounds and wanting to quit

      First national age-group title; coach Anup Deshmukh talked him into playing on 'one more round' at a time. Deshmukh dates it 'way back in 2004'.

    3. Dec 2005 · age 11

      Asian Youth Championship, Under-12 Open[7]

      5.5/7 per FIDE report; runner-up per Free Press Journal and Wikipedia

      Runner-up finish brought the FIDE Master title (FIDE lists FM 2005). Note: this quote is a FIDE table row (ID, name, fed, Rc, points, games, rating change).

    4. 2008

      National 'A' Championship, Chennai[8]

      6 points (four wins, four draws) per his own site

      First IM norm; his site called him the youngest in Maharashtra to earn one. The Hindu (31 Oct 2008) confirms the first norm came from the Chennai National 'A'.

    5. 2008

      Commonwealth Championship, Nagpur[9]

      Second IM norm

      Second of three IM norms.

    6. Oct 2008 · age 14

      World Youth Championship, Under-14 Open, Vung Tau, Vietnam[5]

      Gold (Wikipedia: 9/11); won last-round game against Emmanuel Garcia (Philippines)

      World youth title, first Indian to win the U-14 section; also his third and final IM norm (The Hindu, 31 Oct 2008).

    7. 2009 · age 15

      World Youth Championship, Under-16[1]

      2nd, 9 points, tied with winner S. P. Sethuraman

      Second straight world youth medal.

    8. Oct 2009 · age 14

      IM title approved, 80th FIDE Congress, Halkidiki[4]

      International Master

      IM title confirmed by FIDE just before his 15th birthday.

    9. Jan 2010 · age 15

      FIDE rating list, January 2010[1]

      2504 (FIDE rating history, local data); 2500 requirement met

      The rating half of the GM requirement; his FIDE title application also gives 'January 2010' as the date the necessary rating was gained.

    10. Aug 2011 · age 16

      World Junior Championship (U20), Chennai[10]

      8 points from 12 counted games (13 played) against average rating 2495

      First GM norm (FIDE title record 221363). Quote is FIDE's table row: dates, city, fed, event, system, Rc, points required, points scored, games.

    11. Oct 2012 · age 17

      Nagpur International Open (NIT Nagpur GM Open)[10]

      8/11 against average rating 2439; Wikipedia says one point behind winner Ziaur Rahman

      Second GM norm (FIDE title record). Event ended on his 18th birthday.

    12. Dec 2012 · age 18

      Rose Valley Kolkata Open Grandmasters (Gorky Sadan, Kolkata)[11]

      7.5/11 against average rating 2522 (FIDE title record); finished third (Wikipedia)

      Third and final GM norm, secured with a round to spare; press called him India's 30th GM.

    Coaches and trainers

    7 people are named in published sources as a coach, trainer, second or mentor, in order. Players rarely list everyone who helped them, so this is what's on the record, not a complete count.

    1. Santosh Gujrathi (his father)[2]first teacher (taught him the game; not a professional coach) · c. 2000-01 (age 6)
    2. IM Anup Deshmukh[3]early coach; helped him win the national Under-11 title (Vidit's own testimonial in ChessBase India, 11 Sep 2020; also The Hitavada, 24 Sep 2024) · c. 2004 (age about 10), stop-start camps in Nagpur
    3. IM Roktim Bandyopadhyay[12]first professional coach ('the first to work with Vidit as a coach on a professional basis'); travelled with him to events · about 2008-2011 (began when Vidit was rated around 2350; article dated 13 Apr 2024 says '15-16 years ago')
    4. GM Abhijit Kunte[13]coach · before 2013 ('a few years ago' as of Sep 2013); exact years not stated
    5. GM Alon Greenfeld (Israel)[5]trainer · years not stated (named in a 1 Jul 2017 profile; funded by a Sports Authority of India scholarship)
    6. GM Evgeny Vladimirov (spelt 'Vladmirov' and 'Vladimirov' in the source)[5]trainer · until 2015 (start not stated; via Lakshya NGO camps)
    7. GM Anish Giri[14]elite training partner; Vidit worked as Giri's second (ChessBase India, 2017), not a paid coach of Vidit · from about age 20 (c. 2015), after the GM title

    Records, as they stood

    • First Indian to win the World Under-14 (open) title (as of 2008)[5]
    • India's 30th Grandmaster (as of December 2012 (norm); title approved January 2013)[11]
    • Youngest player from Maharashtra to earn an IM norm (claim from his own website) (as of c. 2007-08 (archived page; date of the norm not stated))[8]
    • Third Grandmaster from Maharashtra (as of December 2012)[13]
    • First player from Maharashtra to win a World Junior medal (bronze, Kocaeli, Sep 2013) (as of 2013-09)[13]
    • Fourth Indian to cross 2700 Elo (as of 2017)[15]

    Since the title: career highlights

    • Nov 2023Won the FIDE Grand Swiss 2023 (Isle of Man), qualifying for the 2024 Candidates; FIDE's report headline: 'Indian Triumph – Vidit and Vaishali win FIDE Grand Swiss'[1]
    • Apr 2024Played the 2024 Candidates (Toronto), 6th of 8; beat Hikaru Nakamura twice, the first player to beat the same opponent twice at that event (ChessBase India, 15 Apr 2024)[1]
    • Sep 2024Gold with India's open team at the 45th Chess Olympiad, Budapest[2]
    • Aug 2020Captain of India's team that shared gold with Russia at the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad (FIDE awarded gold to both teams)[16]
    • Sep 2026Silver with India's open team at the 46th Chess Olympiad, Samarkand (quote is an embedded social post on the Khel Now report; ThePrint reportedly listed him as reserve, not fetched)[17]
    • Aug 2026Arjuna Award 2025 (announced 18 August 2026)[18]
    • Feb 2024Peak classical rating 2747 (February 2024); peak world rank No. 14 (January 2024). Local FIDE rating history agrees on 2747 in Feb 2024.[1]
    • Oct 2026Current FIDE classical rating 2693 (October 2026 list); world rank 36 among active players, India No. 6 (same FIDE profile page)[4]

    Checked on 2026-10-22. Ratings and rankings change every month.

    Where sources disagree

    We show both versions instead of picking one quietly.

    • Nagpur International Open (2nd GM norm) year
    • World Junior 2011 score
      • 8 points from 12 counted games (FIDE record; application says 13 games played)[10]
      • 8 out of 11[1]
    • FIDE Master title year
      • 2005 (FIDE profile; FIDE dates the Asian Youth U-12 event from 2005-12-07)[4]
      • 2006 (Asian Youth Championship)[19]
    • Date of the GM title
      • January 2013 (FIDE Presidential Board approval)[4]
      • December 2012 (press, on completing the final norm)[13]
    • Who was the 'first coach'
      • Roktim Bandyopadhyay, called 'his first coach' (first professional coach)[12]
      • Earlier coaching: Anup Deshmukh at about age 10 (2004), and an unnamed coach in Nashik in 2001[6]
    • Parents' professions
      • Father an Ayurveda practitioner, mother a cosmetologist[1]
      • Both parents (and sister) doctors[2]

    Every grandmaster started with a first tournament

    How long the road usually takes, from first moves to the title, is in our study of how long it takes to become a grandmaster. For a child starting out, here's how to get a FIDE rating in India.

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    Quick answers

    When did Vidit Gujrathi become a grandmaster?

    FIDE approved the title in January 2013, when he was 18. His norms came at the 2011 World Junior in Chennai, Nagpur in October 2012 and the Rose Valley tournament in Kolkata in December 2012.

    Who taught Vidit Gujrathi chess?

    His father, when Vidit was six. IM Anup Deshmukh coached him as a boy, and later coaches named in sources include IM Roktim Bandyopadhyay, GM Alon Greenfeld and GM Evgeny Vladimirov.

    Was Vidit a world youth champion?

    Yes. He won the World Under-14 Championship in Vung Tau, Vietnam, in 2008, the first Indian to win that title.

    More of India's greats

    Sources

    Every fact above links to the page it came from. We read each page and copied the sentence that says it; the quote is shown here. Checked on 2026-10-22.

    1. [1]en.wikipedia.org"BornVidit Santosh Gujrathi (1994-10-24) 24 October 1994 (age 31)[1] Nashik, Maharashtra, India"
    2. [2]thehindu.com""He took me to a club and their cricket was played with season ball, so my Dad said to me wait for a year and then play cricket, till then pick another sport. So I started chess."
    3. [3]chessbase.in"I remember when I was 10 years old, I had gone to Nagpur and trained with him. Those were some extremely valuable chess lessons."
    4. [4]ratings.fide.com"Grandmaster 1st quarter Presidential Board Meeting 2013, 18-20 January, Yerevan, ARM YES"
    5. [5]chessbase.in"Nashik, 2001. Chess culture in the city was at its prime. Several tournaments were being organised at the local level and all of them would see a full house of attendees;"
    6. [6]thehitavada.com"As luck would have it, Vidit claimed the U-11 national chess title,” recalled Deshmukh about his ward who hated to lose."
    7. [7]web.archive.org"5029465 Vidit, Gujarathi IND 2038 5.5 7 21.6"
    8. [8]web.archive.org"Vidit Gujrathi of Nashik-Maharashtra, India had the honour of earning the first norm for a chess international master. Vidit become the youngest player in Maharashtra to earn this honour."
    9. [9]web.archive.org"He had got his first norm from the Chennai National ‘A’ and the second from the Commonwealth Championship at Nagpur."
    10. [10]ratings.fide.com"2011-08-01 2011-08-16 Chennai IND World Junior CC - 2011 SS 2495 8 8 12"
    11. [11]thehindu.com"With International Master Vidit Santosh Gujrathi becoming the 30th Grandmaster of India on confirming his final GM norm in the eighth round,"
    12. [12]revsportz.in"The Kolkata-based International Master was his coach for three-plus years from that period. He used to be in Nashik from time to time and accompany Vidit to tournaments in India and abroad."
    13. [13]timesofindia.indiatimes.com""Vidit has got the ability to reach Elo 2700 strength in two-three years," said Kunte, who coached Vidit a few years ago."
    14. [14]scroll.in"But I felt like I was stuck there. But at that point, I started working with Anish Giri [ELO rating 2797]. That was a game-changer because I started to realise how top players really work."
    15. [15]sportstar.thehindu.com"In 2017, he became the fourth Indian after Viswanathan Anand, Krishnan Sasikiran, and Pentala Harikrishna, to cross the 2700 Elo rating."
    16. [16]scroll.in"India were represented by Vidit Gujrathi, who was th team captain, former world champion Viswanathan Anand, Koneru Humpy, D Harika, R Praggnanandhaa, Pentala Harikrishna and Divya Deshmukh,"
    17. [17]khelnow.com"A superb team effort from Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh D, Nihal Sarin and Vidit Gujrathi, led by captain Srinath Narayanan"
    18. [18]en.chessbase.com"Indian grandmasters Vidit Gujrathi and Divya Deshmukh have been named among the 17 recipients of the Arjuna Award for 2025, India's second-highest sporting honour."
    19. [19]freepressjournal.in"He won the runner-up title at the 2006 Asian Youth Chess Championship and earned the FIDE Master title."