Aaryan Varshney dominates 16th Andranik Margaryan Memorial 2026, becomes the 92nd Grandmaster of India
IM Aaryan Varshney became the 92nd Indian to achieve the Grandmaster title on Friday 16th January 2026. Aaryan drew against GM Jegor Lashkin (MDA) in the final round to become the champion and also earn his final GM-norm. The 20-year-old from Delhi scored his first norm at 34th Vasilis Theoridis Kavala Open 2025 in August. He reached 2500 in FIDE Rating list November. Aaryan scored his second GM-norm at 3rd Leonine GM Round-Robin in the same month. Aaryan has won a lot of tournaments throughout his career. Since November 2023, his rating kept climbing up, thanks to his meticulous planning of tournaments. This year India might just get the highest number of GMs in a calendar year and reach 100 GMs. Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia
Three GM-norms and 2500 within six months
Aaryan Varshney became an International Master in 2024. In just over 1.5 years later, he fulfilled all criterias to become a Grandmaster and earn the coveted title. What makes Aaryan's journey special is, he did it without a chess coach, he was separated from his mother at the age of five years. His father, Gaurav Varshney, played the role of mother and father. It goes without saying that Gaurav certainly is successful in doing a fantastic job as a parent. Our newspage has a lot of reports on Aaryan's triumphs and we are sure in the future there will be more reports and interviews of his victories. The GM Round-Robin tournament had a prize fund of US$ 3700. The top three prizes were $1500, $1000 and $700.
First GM-norm: 34th Vasilis Theodoridis Kavala Open 2025
IM Aaryan Varshney earned his first GM-norm by finishing second at 34th Vasilis Theodoridis Kavala Open in August 2025 in Kavala, Greece. Aaryan defeated GM Abhijeet Gupta, drew against GM Brandon Jacobson (USA), GM Mark Heimann (USA) and GM Emin Ohanyan (ARM).
Aaryan - Abhijeet, Round 9
IM Aaryan Varshney (2454) found a beautiful sequence starting with a sacrifice of an exchange 22.Rxc2! Qxc2 23.Nxd5 c6 24.Be4 Qa2 25.Nf6+! gxf6 26.Nxg4 Re6 27.Qh6 Ng5 28.Bf5 Qd2 29.Bxh7+ Nxh7 30.Qxd2 and it's over. With this win over the five-time Commonwealth champion, GM Abhijeet Gupta (2535), Aaryan shared second place and also earned his maiden GM-norm.
Second GM-norm: 3rd Leonine GM Round-Robin 2025
Aaryan reached 2500 Elo rating in November 2025 FIDE Rating list. He scored his second GM-norm after 3.5 months at 3rd Leonine GM Round-Robin 2025 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Aaryan defeated GM Reefat Bin-Sattar (BAN), drew against GM Duc Hoa Nguyen (VIE) and GM Abdisalimov Abdimalik (UZB) to become the champion.
Aaryan - Fahad, Round 4
IM Mohammad Fahad Rahman (BAN, 2414) made a critical mistake 16...Rc7? IM Aaryan Varshney (2500) had no difficulty spotting the correct continuation 17.Nxd7 Rxd7 18.Bxf6 Bxf6 19.d5 e5 20.Qg4 e4 21.Nxe4 Bxb2 22.Re2 and the central passed pawn played a key role in White earning a victory. Check out the game annotated by Aaryan himself.
Third GM-norm: 16th Andranik Margaryan Memorial GM Round-Robin
Aaryan scored his final GM-norm within two months after securing his second. He scored an unbeaten 7/9 to win the tournament and finished a whopping 1.5 points ahead of the rest. He defeated GM Hovik Hayrapetyan (ARM) and GM Aleksey Goganov, drew against GM Jegor Lashkin (MDA).
Aaryan - Goganov, Round 4
31...Rxb3 32.Qf5+ Kh8?? Black had to play Kg8 to continue the game. 33.Qh3 Kh7 34.Qh5 and it's over as Black has no good way to defend the f7-pawn.
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Final standings
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | IM | Aaryan, Varshney | IND | 2513 | 7 | 29 | 4 | 0 |
| 2 | 3 | GM | Goganov, Aleksey | RUS | 2487 | 5,5 | 20,25 | 4 | 0 |
| 3 | 8 | GM | Lashkin, Jegor | MDA | 2494 | 5 | 22 | 5 | 0 |
| 4 | 1 | IM | Agasarov, Benik | ARM | 2403 | 5 | 21,75 | 4 | 0 |
| 5 | 6 | IM | Sukiasyan, Vahe A. | ARM | 2442 | 5 | 21 | 5 | 0 |
| 6 | 10 | IM | Hakobyan, Erik | ARM | 2427 | 4,5 | 19,25 | 5 | 0 |
| 7 | 9 | GM | Hayrapetyan, Hovik | ARM | 2407 | 4,5 | 17,25 | 5 | 0 |
| 8 | 4 | IM | Nozdrachev, Vladislav | RUS | 2514 | 3,5 | 12,75 | 4 | 0 |
| 9 | 7 | FM | Ambartsumian, Tyhran | ARM | 2375 | 3 | 12 | 5 | 0 |
| 10 | 5 | IM | Sahakyan, Aleks | ARM | 2401 | 2 | 9,75 | 4 | 0 |
Aaryan's best achievements
• Bronze - Asian Youth Under-16 Open Online 2021
• Bronze - Western Asian Under-18 Open Blitz 2019
• Champion - 16th Andranik Margaryan Memorial GM Round-Robin 2026
• Champion - 1st Kangra Rapid Rating Open 2026
• Champion - 2nd Bhilwara Rating Open 2025
• Champion - 3rd Leonine GM Round-Robin 2025
• Champion - Rungta Cements Rating Open 2025
• Champion - 9th Negombo International Chess Festival Rating 2025
• Champion - 16th Late Bharatbai Halkude Memorial Blitz Rating Open 2025
• Champion - DPS Sitapur Future GM Series Vol 1 Rating Open 2025
• Champion - 1st Maharathi Rapid Rating Open 2025
• Champion - North East Chess Festival 2025 Rapid and Blitz Rating
• Champion - 1st Jabalpur Rapid Rating Open 2025
• Champion - Late Shri Sundar Lal Patwa ji Memorial Rapid Rating Open 2024
• Champion - 1st Dewas Rapid Rating Open 2024
• Champion - 1st Project Lakshya Rapid Rating Open 2024
• Champion - 2nd SDCA Blitz Rating Open 2024
• Champion - 1st Emergers Rapid Rating Open 2024
• Champion - 2nd Noida Rapid Rating Open 2024
• Champion - Shri Om Banna Memorial Lakecity Winter Rapid Rating Open 2021
• Champion - 4th IIFL Wealth Junior Under-13 Rating 2018
• Champion - 32nd National Under-13 Open 2018
• Runner-up - AICF National Under-16 Open 2021
• Champion for Delhi University - North Zone Inter University Championship Men 2025
• Champion for Delhi University - North Zone Inter University Championship Men 2023-24
• Champion for Bal Bharati Public School - CBSE National Under-19 Mixed 2023
• Champion for Bal Bharati School Rajinder Nagar - CBSE Central Zone Under-17 Mixed 2019
• Champion - Delhi State Open 2022
• Champion - Delhi State Blitz 2021
• Champion - Delhi State Open 2021
• Champion - Delhi State Under-15 Open 2019
• Champion - Delhi State Rapid and Blitz 2019
• Champion - Delhi State Under-17 Open 2019
• Champion - Delhi State Under-19 Open 2018
• Champion - Delhi State Under-13 Open 2018
• Champion - Delhi State Under-15 Open 2018
• Runner-up - Delhi State Blitz 2022
• Runner-up - Delhi State Under-25 Open 2021
• Runner-up - Delhi State Under-25 Open 2019
• Second Runner-up - Delhi State Under-19 Open 2019
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