Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (born 24 October 1994) is an Indian
chess grandmaster
Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally it h ...
. He attained the title of grandmaster in January 2013, becoming the 30th player from India to do so. He is the fourth Indian player to have crossed the
Elo rating
The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor.
The Elo system was invented as an improved ch ...
threshold of 2700.
Career
Early life and career
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi was born in Nashik to Santosh Gujrathi and Nikita Santosh Gujrathi. He did his early schooling at
Fravashi Academy
Fravashi Academy is a pre-primary, primary and secondary school run by the R. S. Luth Education Trust in Nashik City, Maharashtra, India. It also has a junior college. Mr. Ratanshaw Sorabji Luth, after whom the trust is named was also the fo ...
and was coached in chess from an early age. In 2006, he finished second in the Asian Youth Championships in the U12 category, thus receiving the title of FIDE Master.
In 2008, he won the World Youth Chess Championship in the Open U14 section, the first Indian to do so. He scored 9 points out of a possible 11, clinching his final norm to become an
International Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
S. P. Sethuraman
Sethuraman Panayappan Sethuraman (born 25 February 1993 in Chennai) He made the first step towards becoming a grandmaster in January 2010 by reaching a 2500 rating.
In the World Junior Chess Championship in Chennai in 2011, held for U20 players, Vidit finished with 8 points out of 11, thus gaining his first GM norm.
In the Nagpur International Open in 2011, Vidit finished with 8 points out of 11, one point behind the eventual winner Ziaur Rahman. He gained his second GM norm in the tournament. Vidit achieved his final GM norm at the age of 18 in the eighth round of the Rose Valley Kolkata Open Grandmasters' chess tournament in 2012, where he finished third.
In 2013, Vidit won a bronze medal in the World Junior Chess Championship in Turkey in the Junior (U20) category. Vidit finished third in the Hyderabad International Grandmasters chess tournament in 2013, winning Rs 150,000. He passed the 2600-rating threshold on the January 2014 rating list.
Vidit's equal third at the 2015
Asian Chess Championship The Asian Chess Championship is a chess tournament open to all players from Asian chess federations ( FIDE zones from 3.1 to 3.7). It's held with the Swiss system and consists in two divisions, Open and Women's, the latter of which is reserved to f ...
qualified him to the Chess World Cup 2015, where he was eliminated in the first round. In 2017, he tied for the best score of 7/9 at the Dubai Open.
2018–2023
Vidit won the Challenger event of the 2018 Tata Steel Chess Tournament by a full point, going undefeated with a score of 9/13. He qualified for the Masters event of the 2019 tournament, where he had a respectable 7/13 showing, including a win over former world champion
Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (russian: Влади́мир Бори́сович Кра́мник; born 25 June 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster. He was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed World Chess Cha ...
.
From 2226 November 2019, he competed in the
Tata Steel
Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company, based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand and headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of the Tata Group.
Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO), Tata ...
Rapid and Blitz as a wildcard competitor. He finished in a tie for eighth with fellow wildcard Pentala Harikrishna. He played in the
Skilling Open
The Champions Chess Tour 2021, known for sponsorship reasons as the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, was a 10-month long series of 10 online chess tournaments featuring the world's top players, playing for a prize money pool of US$1.5 million. T ...
, the first event of the Champions Chess Tour 2021.
He was the captain of the historic gold medal-winning Indian team in Online Chess Olympiad 2020.
Through February and March 2022, Vidit played in the FIDE Grand Prix 2022. In the first leg, he tied for second with Daniil Dubov with 3/6 in Pool C. In the second leg, he finished second in Pool C with a result of 3/6, finishing 12th in the standings with seven points.
Vidit qualified to the Chess World Cup 2023 by rating, replacing women's world chess champion Ju Wenjun. He reached the round of 16, where he defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi to advance to the quarterfinals for his second consecutive World Cup. He lost to Nijat Abasov in the quarterfinals, missing out on a chance to qualify for the
Candidates Tournament
The Candidates Tournament (or in some periods Candidates Matches) is a chess tournament organized by FIDE, chess's international governing body, since 1950, as the final contest to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The wi ...
.
He played in the
FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2023
The FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2023 is an upcoming chess tournament that forms part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2024. It will be an 11-round Swiss-system tournament with 114 players competing from 25 October to 5 ...
from 25 October to 5 November 2023. He lost in the first round, but won 7 out of his next 10 games to win the tournament with a score of 8½/11. Vidit qualified to the
Candidates Tournament 2024
The 2024 Candidates Tournament will be an eight-player chess tournament, held to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship 2024. It is scheduled to take place at The Great Hall in Toronto, Canada, from April 3–22, 2024. The even ...
by finishing in the top two of the Grand Swiss. The All India Chess Federation announced a financial assistance of ₹20 million for Candidates preparation to Vidit, R Praggnanandhaa and
R Vaishali
Rameshbabu Vaishali (born 21 June 2001) is an Indian chess player from Chennai who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM).
Personal life
Vaishali Rameshbabu born in a Tamil family in Chennai. She is the ...
FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2023
The FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2023 is an upcoming chess tournament that forms part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2024. It will be an 11-round Swiss-system tournament with 114 players competing from 25 October to 5 ...