Chess: Aswath S becomes India's 98th Grandmaster

India's journey towards its 100th Grandmaster continues to gather pace as Aswath S became the 98th chess player to achieve the feat on Wednesday.

Competing at the 2026 Pune International Grandmaster Round Robin, Aswath secured his third GM norm in the final round, winning on demand to secure his Grandmaster title.

Aswath had earlier earned his first GM norm at the Grenke Open last year, before earning his second and crossing the 2500-rating barrier at the First Saturday GM Round Robin in Budapest in December.

Aswath finished second at the tournament in Pune, scoring 7 points in nine rounds. He registered a loss, two draws, and six wins, including a last round win over FM Kannan Vaidyanathan with the black pieces to achieve the GM title.

Aswath is the third Indian to earn the Grandmaster title this month.

Earlier, Ethan Vaz and Harshavardhan GB had earned their third norms to become India's 97th and 98th GM respectively.