About Chess Bharat
Welcome to Chess Bharat
We cover Indian chess, past and present. But that’s not all; we also follow the major global chess events and moments that matter to Indian players and fans, wherever in the world they’re happening.
On the present side, that means news, player profiles, and the tournaments that matter. Upcoming major Chess events, Chess Olympiad, the current generation of Indian grandmasters, and the international events shaping the sport more broadly all fall under that.
On the history side, it means the stories that rarely get written. Colonial-era players who beat world champions, the women who forced FIDE to change its own rules. And the Chennai club scene that built modern Indian chess, well before Anand won his first title.
Most coverage of Indian chess starts around 2020. That’s when Samay Raina’s chess streams and Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit brought a large new audience to the game, in India and worldwide. That boom was real, and many people were introduced to chess through it. But Indian chess did not begin with the pandemic lockdown. Chaturanga, an early ancestor of modern chess, was being played in Indian royal courts some 1,500 years earlier. And long before the recent boom, Sagar Shah had already built ChessBase India into the country’s leading chess media outlet.
Chess Bharat covers both halves of that story with the same standard. Current reporting on what’s happening now, and the same research discipline applied to the history most outlets don’t bother with.
What You’ll Find Here
- Chess Bulletin: News and analysis on what’s happening in chess right now, from the players to the tournaments to the moments that matter
- Indian Chess History: The long, specific story of how this country shaped the game, told through the people who lived it
- Learn Chess and New to Chess: Clear, practical instruction and a real starting point for players at every stage
- Daily Puzzles: A fresh tactic to solve, drawn from real games
- Chess Horoscope: A lighthearted, purely-for-fun corner pairing your zodiac sign with chess openings and playing styles. Entertainment only, not literal astrology.
Who’s Behind This
Chess Bharat is written and run by Aayush Jaiswal, a lifelong player and FIDE-rated competitor (FIDE ID 577028287), rated over 2100 on Chess.com. He grew up playing the game and wanted to give something back to a chess world that gave him a great deal. This site starts with the country’s own overlooked history in it.
Get In Touch
Have a correction, a story lead, or a game we should feature? Visit our Contact Us page, we read everything that comes in.