After winning the 24th NordWest Cup 2023 at Bad Zwischenahn in Germany and defeating German IM Ilja Schneider, Indian chess player Vignesh NR became the 80th Grandmaster of India.
Visakh NR, Vignesh's older brother, was elected as India's 59th general in 2019. Visakh and Vignesh are the first brothers in India to hold the title of Grandmaster.
Recently, Vignesh won bronze for his team Railways Sports Promotion Board A at the National team Chess Championship Open 2023 along with his brother Visakh.
He scored an unbeaten 7/9.
With Vignesh joining the list of Grandmasters, India already has three grandmasters since the start of 2023 with 19-year-old Koustav Chatterjee and 16-year-old M Pranesh becoming the 78th and 79th Grandmaster respectively in the first week of January.
Currently, 29 out of 80 chess grandmasters in India are from Tamil Nadu.
