Rejected a job offer for chess, now India’s 100th Grandmaster: How Anuj Shrivatri became Madhya Pradesh’s first GM | Chess News
NEW DELHI: While India was preparing to light diyas for Diwali, Anuj Shrivatri was about 2,800 miles away, in a tournament hall in the Philippines, closing out a game that would make him the country’s 100th Grandmaster and the first his state, Madhya Pradesh, had ever produced.Before this Sunday, India had 99 Grandmasters, and Madhya Pradesh had none. The tally has now gone up by one, thanks to a 22-year-old from Katni who rejected a corporate job offer to chase this exact moment.As he prepares to board a flight back home, his latest challenge is to contain the euphoria felt in his voice.“The feeling right now is mostly relief,” Anuj told TimesofIndia.com from the Philippines, barely a day after winning the 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open Chess Championship and securing the GM title.“I had been trying for the GM title for a long time. There were so many times my GM norms were missed. At least four or five times I was really close, and it slipped away. So now that the title is finally complete, I’m feeling a lot of relief.”Shrivatri’s parents, Ashok Kumar Shrivatri, a teacher with the railways, and Manorama Shrivatri, a teacher at a government school, had lived through every one of those near misses alongside him, making this ve occasion all the more special.“They’re very happy. They also know I’d been struggling with this for a long time. I was playing well, but sometimes the results just weren’t coming. Now that the title is finally complete, they’re very happy. And since it happened during Diwali, it’s an even bigger joy for them,” he added with a smile.
A father’s hobby, a son’s career
Chess entered Shrivatri’s life through a parent’s old college pastime.“My father used to play chess during his college days,” he recalled. “He was quite fond of the game, so when I was young, around five or six, he introduced me to it. Then both my elder brother and I took a liking to it.”His brother eventually drifted away from the board; he now works as a software engineer in Bengaluru. Shrivatri didn’t.A succession of coaches shaped him from there. Virendra Tiwari, who taught him his very first moves, then Nikhilesh Jain, then Yashpal Arora, and finally Rajesh Bahadur, under whose guidance Shrivatri became an International Master (IM) in 2019.
MP’s top chess players in Anuj Shrivatri, now a GM, IM Akshat Khamparia, and IM Ayush Sharma (Special Arrangements)
After that, he says, it was mostly self-directed work, punctuated by sessions with respected Grandmasters such as Vishnu Prasanna, Swayams Mishra and Swapnil Dhopade whenever he needed outside eyes on his game.What followed the IM title, though, wasn’t a straight climb.“After 2019, I was very motivated, but then Covid came,” he continued. “After that, I wasn’t sure whether to pursue chess as a career or focus on my studies. At that point, chess didn’t feel certain enough, and I wasn’t sure of myself either, so I decided to focus on studies.”He completed his BTech degree in Computer Science at Lovely Professional University, and it was only in 2025, playing tournaments on the side, almost as an afterthought, that something shifted.“I felt a change in my play, in my temperament. I thought, no, I should give chess a real shot, give it a year or two and try to become a GM,” he recalled.The timing forced a genuine choice. His college internship ended just as a full-time job offer from the company landed in his inbox.“I was fairly certain by then that completing the GM title would be a great thing,” he revealed. “So I quit the company and went full-time into chess.”
The price of chasing the dream
The decision to go full-time in chess came with its challenges. With no sponsorship, every trip abroad came out of his own pocket, financed in large part by what he earned playing rapid tournaments and coaching gigs.“Finances were the biggest struggle, because I was managing everything myself and there was no sponsorship as such. I was earning money from rapid tournaments and spending it on trips abroad,” he admitted.That math also explains why getting an opportunity to play against elite, 2600-plus-rated opposition has been difficult.“The strong players are usually found in very niche tournaments, a big event in Kazakhstan, or a strong open in Qatar. But going there is financially a very risky decision. One tournament can cost around a lakh rupees just to go and play,” he added.
Becoming a Grandmaster despite losing in Round 1
In the Philippines, Shrivatri lost his opening-round game. He feels what went wrong was his decision to play aggressively as Black.“I took on too much risk, and my position became very uncomfortable. I think it was simply the fault of my opening,” he recalled.
Anuj Shrivatri’s performance at the 7th ASEAN Plus Individual Open Chess Championship
He rebuilt from there with a complete change of approach.“For the rest of the games, I played very solid with Black. I told myself I’d try to create chances, but if it didn’t work out and my opponent played well, it was fine to take the draw. That approach helped me a lot, because at some point or another, people make mistakes. You just have to wait for them.”What followed was an unbeaten run in his remaining eight games, with six wins and two draws. He finished the tournament with 7/9, half a point ahead of second-placed Vietnamese GM Nguyen Duc Hoa.
‘Satisfied isn’t really the right word’
Hailing from the same city, Akshat Khamparia, the state’s first IM, recalls a boy who was reserved away from the board but unusually mature on it.Even as a youngster, he leaned on patience and structure rather than fireworks, picking apart positions move by careful move long before he had the rating to back that style up.Khamparia, MP Chess’s committee convener who has spent years building up its tournament circuit, has made a habit of promoting the state’s young players at every event he runs, with banners with their faces up at venues.
A banner with faces of prominent chess players in MP (Special Arrangements)
“We’ve done a lot for Anuj too,” Khamparia said. “We’ve highlighted him everywhere, in events, at every opportunity we get.”It’s the same persistence that, separately, saw Khamparia spend years nudging Shrivatri toward the career security of a sports-quota job with Indian Railways.And after years of him pushing Anuj, the process has now gone through. Anuj’s medical has been completed, and his joining Western Railway is in its final stages.Even now, Shrivatri resists calling himself satisfied.“Satisfied isn’t really the right word,” he said, “because I have a pretty strong opinion that you should never become complacent in life. You should enjoy the milestone, of course, but in general, you should never settle. That’s something I try to follow.”So, what is next for him? The 22-year-old concluded, “There are two things I’m sure about. I want to cross a 2600 rating, and I want to win as many tournaments as I can. Those are my two goals in chess right now.”
