Who are the Indian celebrities who play chess, and how good are they really? Several of India’s biggest cricketers and film stars play, and some are better at it than most fans know. Cricketers who play chess do it on flights and in team hotels. Bollywood actors who play chess do it in their childhood homes, in charity exhibitions, and in at least one case, with a board signed by a world champion.
One cricketer won a national title as a child. Another now co-owns a chess team. A filmmaker built two of Indian cinema’s most admired films around the game. Most people know these Indian celebrities who play chess for something else, but the board has been part of their lives for years.
Here are these celebrities and their connections with the chessboard:
| Name | Known for | Chess link |
| Yuzvendra Chahal | Cricketer | National under-12 champion in 2002 |
| Aamir Khan | Actor | Drew with GM Abhijit Kunte in 2006, played Anand in 2021 |
| R Ashwin | Cricketer | Co-owner of Global Chess League team American Gambits |
| Sachin Tendulkar | Cricketer | Chess runs in his family |
| Shah Rukh Khan | Actor | Father gave him his first chess set at age 10 |
| John Abraham | Actor | Owns a chess board signed by Viswanathan Anand |
| Hrithik Roshan | Actor | Played chess with his son during the 2020 lockdown |
| Satyajit Ray | Filmmaker | Loved the game personally, made two films built around it |
| Venkatesh Iyer | Cricketer | Played a friendly game against World No. 4 Javokhir Sindarov |
Yuzvendra Chahal’s Chess Career: A Player Before He Was a Cricketer
Among cricketers who play chess, Chahal has one of the most interesting chess backgrounds. His chess career started early, and he won the national under-12 title in 2002. He also played at the Asian Youth Championship the next year and finished in the top 20. Then he went to the World Youth Championship in Greece, where he did not do well.
In 2003, he chose cricket. Chahal gives a simpler reason for not taking chess as a career. He says cricket simply interested him more, and he could not carry both. He has said chess needed 10 to 12 hours of training, while cricket needed six to eight.
But the chess world remembers him. GM Adhiban said in April 2020 that he had played and beaten Chahal as a junior. He also called him a good player. Chahal’s FIDE profile shows that he has been inactive since January 2004. He’s having a rating of 1974 in classical chess. His rating has remained unchanged since his inactivity began.
Chess still shapes how he bowls. At the April 2020 event, he put it simply: “Chess taught me patience.” In June 2021, he also played against Vishy Anand in an online simul organised by Chess.com in which Chahal came away with a loss.
However, chess has stayed in his life. In June 2023, Chahal was the SG Alpine Warriors’ team ambassador at the first Global Chess League in Dubai. Among all the other cricketers who play chess in the Indian squad, he said, nobody could beat him, and he laughed as he said it. He plays Ashwin now and then, he added, and used to play the team trainer, Shanker Basu, on flights and long journeys.
In an interview published by ChessBase India, he mentioned that chess is his first love. That sums up Yuzvendra Chahal’s chess career in short: a national under-12 title, appearances at two youth championships, and a hard choice in 2003.
Aamir Khan’s Chess History: Bollywood’s Most Serious Fan
Aamir Khan’s chess history goes back to childhood. He has played chess since he was six, and learnt it from his grandmother. He is among the best-known Bollywood actors who play chess.
In March 2006, he sat down at the Khar Gymkhana in Mumbai against Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte, who was playing 20 people at once. The two eventually agreed to a draw. According to Kunte, Aamir knew the game well.
Anand was already a familiar opponent to him. These two had also met in a charity game in 2015. In 2019, Anand said Aamir was the actor best suited to play him in a film, because he plays chess well. Hindustan Times has also quoted Anand saying that Aamir sitting down at a board is good for chess.
Aamir has also played against his Dhoom 3 co-star Katrina Kaif. At the inauguration of the Maharashtra Chess League’s third edition, he admitted he almost lost to her. He said: “She is a good chess player. I almost lost when I played with her”. Katrina has backed this up herself, once saying chess is the one thing she picked up from Aamir. He added, half-joking, that he only plays it on the board, while she plays it in real life too.
The most talked-about Aamir Khan chess game came in June 2021. Aamir played in an online simul again against Anand. It was Aamir’s first time playing chess online, and he eventually resigned after Anand played the Fried Liver Attack, a sharp opening variation of the Italian Game. Aamir even had to ask the hosts how to resign, despite still having six minutes left on his clock.
When Samay Raina asked Aamir whether he would like to play Vishy Anand in a biopic, should one ever be made, Aamir replied, “Is that even a question? It’s one of the easiest questions to answer for me. It’ll be an honour and pleasure to play Vishy” Anand had a funny response: “I’ll put you in a position where you won’t have to gain weight.”
R Ashwin: Chess in the Team Hotel
Ravichandran Ashwin is one of the cricketers who play chess between matches. In May 2022, the Rajasthan Royals posted a video of him playing Yashasvi Jaiswal while he signed merchandise at the same time.
The All India Chess Federation noticed. It replied on social media, asking Ashwin for a game. Before IPL 2023, Ashwin was photographed playing chess at the Royals’ team hotel.
In July 2024, Ashwin took a bigger step. The Global Chess League announced him as a co-owner of the newly added American Gambits, alongside Prachura PP and Venkat K Narayana. The team played in the league’s second season in London, from 3 to 12 October 2024, with Hikaru Nakamura as its icon player. In March 2025, Ashwin also handed Gukesh a Chennai Super Kings jersey with the number 18, in a clip the franchise shared online.
Recently, on 23rd September , 2026, he also shared one of his milestones on Instagram, revealing that he had reached a 1700 rapid rating on Chess.com. This further shows that he is not a beginner and already has a strong foundation in chess.
Sachin Tendulkar: Chess Runs in the Family
Tendulkar is another of the cricketers who play chess, or at least did growing up. He has said he and his brother played plenty, but his results were poor. At an event organised by the All India Chess Federation, he said chess entered his family through an uncle. According to Chessdom, Sachin’s uncle also authored a chess book and had a role in the federation.
His cricket and chess worlds also met in November 2013. Deccan Chronicle reported that Tendulkar’s final two Tests clashed with the Anand vs Carlsen world championship match in Chennai, which ran from 7 to 28 November. In 2022, he posted wishes for the Indian teams at the Chennai Olympiad.
Shah Rukh Khan: A Chess Set From His Father
Shah Rukh Khan’s chess story goes back to a gift, not a game he’s famous for playing publicly. Speaking at his daughter’s graduation in July 2016, he told students about five gifts his father had given him that changed his life. The first, when he turned 10, was an old chess set. “When I was ten, my father gifted me an old chess set,” he said.
He spent nearly four minutes of that speech linking chess to life, at one point comparing a difficult, stuck position to zugzwang, where every move available makes things worse. He called taking your blessings for granted a kind of foolishness that applies just as much on the board as off it.
John Abraham: A Board Signed by Anand
John Abraham has called chess his favourite game, and said he has read many books on it. In an interview with Mashable India, he said he owns a board that Viswanathan Anand signed for him. The two stayed in touch for a while, he added, during which he studied different moves himself.
He has also shown up at chess events in person. He was chief guest at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League’s second season, where he met Indian chess commentator and ChessBase India co-founder Sagar Shah.
Hrithik Roshan: Chess During the Lockdown
Hrithik Roshan played chess with his son during the COVID-19 lockdown, and made it the subject of one of his more talked-about Instagram posts. On 6 April 2020, he shared a photo on instagram of the two of them playing. He used the game as a metaphor for staying safe during the pandemic. He told followers to keep their distance, stay calm, and wash their hands “before you begin.” He closed the post by saying the rules stay the same for every kind of war, and that it was time to win.
Satyajit Ray: The Filmmaker Who Loved the Game
Satyajit Ray’s connection with chess went beyond making a film about the game. He genuinely loved chess, and his interest was one of the reasons he was drawn to Munshi Premchand’s Shatranj Ke Khilari. Ray later said he was attracted to the story because of his interest in “chess, the Raj period, and the city of Lucknow itself.”
Released in 1977, Shatranj Ke Khilari follows two Lucknow aristocrats so absorbed in chess that they remain largely oblivious to the British annexation of Awadh taking place around them. Ray used their obsession with the game to draw a larger parallel between chess and the political manoeuvring of the British.
The film also won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi in 1977.
Venkatesh Iyer: Another Cricket Star With a Chess Connection
On 6 September 2026, Indian cricketer Venkatesh Iyer played a friendly game against Javokhir Sindarov, then the world’s No. 4 player. The game took place at the RCB Café in Garuda Mall, Bengaluru. The game was filmed as part of a “Chess & Chill” event alongside meet-and-greets with fans and other chess players.
Sindarov was in the city because the Global Chess League‘s fourth season was being played in Bengaluru from 3 to 13 September 2026, with Sindarov featuring as an icon player.
Other Celebrities Worth Mentioning
These examples are part of a much wider group of Indian Celebrities Who Play Chess, ranging from Bollywood actors and cricketers to singers, filmmakers and other public figures.
Several well-known Indians came together on June 13, 2021, to play against Vishy Anand in an online simul when Chess.com India held a fundraiser called Checkmate COVID Celebrity Edition.
Anand played against two groups of five, with all the participants playing simultaneously. Some of the participants, apart from Aamir Khan, were:
- Actors Riteish Deshmukh and Kiccha Sudeep
- Singers Arijit Singh and Ananya Birla
- Cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal
- Producer Sajid Nadiadwala
Apart from this, Jacqueline Fernandez surprised fans in August 2025 by sharing a photo of herself playing chess. The post went viral and was picked up by several entertainment outlets. While it was a smaller moment than some of the other examples on this list, it still showed how chess continues to attract interest from India’s celebrity circles.
Furthermore, this list specifically focuses on prominent figures from Bollywood, Indian cinema and cricket who have a documented personal connection with chess. That is why chess personalities and popularisers from the comedy or streaming world, such as Samay Raina or Biswa Kalyan, are not on this list. Likewise, younger chess players connected to celebrities, such as Ayaan Hashmi, son of actor Emraan Hashmi, who is also a FIDE rated player, are not included because the focus here is on established Bollywood and cricket personalities themselves.
FAQs
1. Who are the Indian celebrities who play chess?
Yuzvendra Chahal, Aamir Khan, R Ashwin, Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan, John Abraham, Hrithik Roshan and Satyajit Ray are among the Indian celebrities who play chess with a documented history.
2. Did Yuzvendra Chahal play chess professionally?
Not for long. He won the 2002 national under-12 title and played youth championships, then chose cricket in 2003.
3. How good is Aamir Khan at chess?
He drew with Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte in 2006, but resigned against Viswanathan Anand in the 2021 charity event.
4. Does R Ashwin play chess?
Yes. Ashwin is among the cricketers who play chess, and he co-owns the Global Chess League team American Gambits.
5. Has Sachin Tendulkar played chess?
Yes. He says he and his brother played plenty of chess, and the game entered his family through an uncle.
Disclaimer: This article is based on publicly available information and sources. Any embedded videos or third-party content belong to their respective owners, and ChessBharat does not claim ownership of or responsibility for such content. ChessBharat also does not claim that every celebrity mentioned is a professional or active chess player.
