The father of modern Indian chess

The brother and sister in this picture are instantly recognisable to most chess players everywhere but not the senior gentleman seated between them. But obviously, Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali both hold him in high esteem. I was surprised to see him in this picture and actually more delighted to know that Manuel Aaron is still living in Madras. For a while, after he had played in the Penang leg of the first Asian grandmaster chess circuit in 1978, we had kept in touch for some years before ultimately losing contact.

Manuel Aaron is India’s first International Master, a nine-time national champion and one of the key figures who turned Indian chess from a scattered mix of local variants into the modern game played today. Born on 30 December 1935 in Toungoo, Burma, to Indian parents, Aaron grew up in Tamil Nadu after his family returned during the Second World War. He was largely self-taught as a kid, at a time when coaching barely existed, and later went on to complete a Science degree at Allahabad University.

By the late 1950s he was already the dominant force in Indian chess. He won the Indian National Championship nine times between 1959 and 1981, including a run of five straight titles from 1969 to 1973. He also took the Tamil Nadu State Championship eleven times between 1957 and 1982, and helped to establish the state as a lasting centre of strength in Indian chess.

His big international breakthrough came in 1961 when he won both the West Asian Zonal and the Asian-Australian Zonal. That earned him the International Master title, making him the first Indian to receive a FIDE title. The same year he became the first chess player to win the Arjuna Award which was India’s top sporting honour.

Qualifying for the 1962 Stockholm Interzonal was a huge moment. He finished last, but still pulled off wins against top grandmasters Lajos Portisch and Wolfgang Uhlmann; these were results that are still talked about as some of the biggest upsets in Indian chess. Aaron represented India in three Chess Olympiads (1960, 1962 and 1964), twice as captain. His win over former World Champion Max Euwe at Leipzig 1960 remained a landmark result.

Outside competition, his impact was just as significant. Until the 1960s, many Indians were still playing regional versions of chess with different rules. Aaron pushed for international standards, encouraged serious study of openings and endgames, and helped build the structure the game needed. He founded the Tal Chess Club in Chennai in 1972, which became a focal point for organised chess in the city.

He also worked as a journalist and author. He wrote for The Hindu and launched the magazine Chess Mate in 1982. Teaching was always a big part of his life, and he continued mentoring young players well into his later years. In the end, Aaron’s legacy rests on two things: what he achieved over the board and what he built away from it. He helped give Indian chess a proper foundation that later generations took much further.