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3 min readFeb 28, 2026 06:48 PM IST
Aarav Dengla became 93rd Indian Grandmaster. (PHOTO: Chess.com/ChessbaseIndia)
India’s Grandmaster count continues to grow, with 17-year-old Aarav Dengla becoming the country’s 93rd GM after completing all formalities for the coveted title this month. The youngster from Mumbai became India’s latest GM after he won his final GM norm, and his classical live rating touched 2506, fulfilling all the criteria for the Grandmaster title.
Dengla won his third and final GM norm and crossed the 2500 barrier by winning the GM Mix Bijeljina and GM norm Round Robin Tournament consecutively in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He won his first GM norm at the 1st International Grandmaster Tournament Bijeljina back in 2022 while his second GM norm came at Zupanja Celebrates Chess GM-norm Round Robin in Croatia in 2025.
Aarav has been rising in Indian chess circles. In 2024, he won the Grand Paris Masters Championship, the oldest French chess tournament.
Held at the Blanche de Castille High School in Villemomble outside Paris, the Master’s chess event had 250 players in contention for the coveted title. The then 15-year-old Dengla took the spotlight in the Masters tournament. Dengla achieved a perfect score of 7 points to secure a clear victory and mark his first Parisian championship title.
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“I started learning chess when I was five. I played my first few day tournaments when I was six. Since then, I’ve always been in love with the game,” Dengla had told Chess.com in 2022 after he received his first IM norm. “Initially, it started out as a hobby. My mom taught it to me, and within three-four weeks, I was playing in local tournaments. After a while, I began playing in FIDE tournaments, and that’s when I wanted to get a bit further into chess and become a grandmaster,” Dengla added.
A student at Dhirubhai Ambani International School in Mumbai, Dengla, won gold at the FIDE World Schools Rapid and Blitz in 2024. He finished with 7.5 points from nine rounds to clinch the gold medal.
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Dengla is the second Indian to attain the GM title in 2026, after Aaryan Varshney became the 92nd GM from the country in January. Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand is the first Indian Grandmaster, having won his title in 1988, followed by Dibyendu Barua, India’s second Grandmaster.
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