The game of Chess is such an indoor game that requires a lot of intelligence and mental toughness of the player and hence it is very popular among all the intelligent people of India. In fact this is a very famous game in all the parts of India, be it rural or urban. The Indian Chess players have always been under the spotlight of the international arena and they have also been doing very good results in all the regional and international tournaments. However, in spite of having such a very successful background and glorious performances, the Chess players of India somehow lacked behind when it comes to the fact of winning the "Arjuna Award". In the history of the game, there have been only 12 players who became successful to win the "Arjuna Award" though someone may get the feeling that the number could have been increased in a great way.

The Chess players of India got their first ever "Arjuna Award" in 1961, the very first year of the award`s inception. In that year, Manuel Aaron became the winner of the award and after his win, the game of Chess faced a very long period of failure in winning the award. The period continues for 19 years and the dead lock was broke by Rohini Khadilkar who won the award in the year of 1980-81. Grand Master Dibyendu Barua followed her and won it in the year of 1983. The winning streak of the Chess players went on and in 1984 Pravin Thipsay won the award.

The Government of India honoured Grand Master Vishwanathan Anand by presenting him the "Arjuna Award" in the year of 1985. He is the most successful and famous Chess player of India and probably the only Indian Chess star who has got the extreme popularity in all over the world. After his success, the following year was winner less for the Chess players and in 1987, there were two players who became successful to win the award. The players were, Devaki Prasad and Bhagyashree Thipsay. Then in 1990, Anupama Gokhale won the award and there started another long period of failure for the Chess players. This period lasted no longer than 10 years and in the very first year of the new millennium that is in 2000, Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi broke the dead lock for the second time by winning the award in that year. Krishnan Sasikiran claimed the award in the year of 2002 and the very next year in 2003, Koneru Humpy became the "Arjuna Award" winner. Surya Shekhar Ganguly won it in the year of 2005. The last winner of the award so far on behalf of the Chess players is Harikrishna in the year 2007.

If anyone searches the entire history of Indian sport, he/she will found that as far as the success in the international championships is concerned, the Indian Chess players will definitely be calculated as one of the most successful ones. The number of promising Chess players in India is also very much encouraging for the Chess loving people of India. This is why the people of India are very much hopeful to see more and more success stories from the Chess players of India.