For Aswath S, chess was never far from home. The board was in the house, the academy was above it, and both his parents were part of the sport that would eventually shape his life.
On Wednesday, that journey reached its biggest milestone as the 17-year-old from Kanyakumari completed the requirements to become India’s 98th Grandmaster after scoring his third and final GM norm at the Pune International Grandmaster Round Robin Tournament.
Aswath needed a win in the last round to complete the norm. Playing with black pieces, he defeated USA’s FM Kannan Vaidyanathan to finish the nine-round event with 7/9 points, sealing the title requirement at The Fern Habitat in Pune.
The result came after a difficult start to the tournament. Seeded second behind GM Abhijeet Gupta, Aswath had 1.5 points from the first three rounds after losing to Gupta and drawing against IM Kushagra Mohan. He recovered with wins in the fourth and fifth rounds before being held by young FM Advik Amit Agrawal in the sixth.
That left him needing three wins from the final three rounds.
“I just wanted to keep everything as simple as I can,” Aswath told Sportstar, recalling the pressure of the final stretch.
He responded by beating GM Aleksej Aleksandrov, IM Akshay Borgaonkar, and Vaidyanathan in succession to complete the norm.
Chess roots: Aswath S began his journey under his father, A.C. Shiva, with both his parents working as chess trainers running Cape Chess Academy in Nagercoil. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The Pune success also marked Aswath’s return to classical chess after a break for his Class 10 board 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.
His first GM norm came earlier in 2025 at the Grenke Open A in Germany, where he produced one of the standout performances of his young career. Aswath scored an unbeaten 8/9, won the title on tie-breaks ahead of a strong field, and recorded a 2779 performance rating.
Born in 2008, Aswath is currently listed by FIDE with a standard rating of 2517. He had earned the International Master title in 2023 and crossed the 2500-rating mark before completing his final norm in Pune.
His chess journey began when he was three. His father, A.C. Shiva, was his first coach, and the family’s academy was located above their house. His mother, who learnt the game after marriage, now trains beginners and intermediate players and runs Cape Chess Academy in Nagercoil.
Aswath began playing district-level events at the age of four and said his first major early success came in an under-seven state event in 2015, where he scored 9/9. Now a student of Velammal in Chennai, he trains under GM Shyam Sundar and says chess will remain his main professional focus.
The title also takes Indian chess closer to the 100-Grandmaster mark, coming shortly after Harshavardhan G.B. became the country’s 97th GM through the Chola Chess GM Norm Round Robin Tournament in Chennai.
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Published on Jul 08, 2026