SLU Grandmaster Aryan Chopra Brings Global Chess Experience to Collegiate Stage

SLU Grandmaster Aryan Chopra Brings Global Chess Experience to Collegiate Stage

Aryan Chopra will compete with Saint Louis University's chess team at the National Collegiate Chess Championship later this month. One of the youngest players to earn the grandmaster title, Chopra brings elite international experience to collegiate chess while balancing his studies as a business major at Saint Louis University.

His path into chess began unexpectedly after a childhood accident left him homebound during recovery.

"I was playing in my neighborhood and bent down to pick something up," Chopra said. "A car was reversing and I ended up underneath it. I lost consciousness and woke up in the hospital."

During his recovery, Chopra discovered a chess set among his birthday gifts and quickly became fascinated with the knight piece. "At six years old, I realized a knight could cover eight squares," he said. His early aptitude led his father to arrange private coaching.

"My family supported me on every step of the way," Chopra said. "My parents and my brother supported me in terms of training when they could - using a computer to play against me for practice - and arranged my travel, coaching and other expenses despite us being a middle-class family. This includes spending our own money as well as arranging sponsorships."

After just five training sessions, Chopra won the Delhi Under-7 State Championship with a perfect score. "Others had been training for over a year," he said. His rapid rise continued with a silver medal at the Asian Under-8 Championship and multiple top 10 finishes at national tournaments in India.

Chopra reached a defining milestone in 2016 at an international tournament in Abu Dhabi.

"I had to win against a stronger player with the black pieces to get my final Grandmaster title," Chopra said. "I won that game and became a Grandmaster at 14 years."

At the time, Chopra was the youngest Grandmaster in the world and the second youngest ever from India. Achieving the title shifted his focus from titles to long-term performance.

"Becoming a Grandmaster is the highest title in chess and the main goal for every young player," he said. "Once I achieved it, my focus shifted from chasing the title to working on my world ranking."

Now ranked amongst the top 100 players globally, Chopra balances professional-level competition with his studies at SLU. "I try to do the best at whatever I am currently doing," he said. "During the semester, I focus on my studies, but before an event, I shift my focus entirely to chess."

His competitive résumé includes multiple high-level matchups against the current world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju.

"I've played Gukesh three times in over-the-board games," Chopra said. "The first was in the National Championship 2022 in the last round, which ended in a draw. The second was in 2022 Menorca Open in Spain, which also ended in a draw. He won that tournament and I finished second. The third was in the 2023 edition of Menorca Open, where I lost. Both of us and some other players finished at the same number of points, but he won the tournament on tiebreaks."

Despite competing at the highest level, Chopra said his love for the game remains rooted in its competitive purity.

"I love pretty much every practical aspect of chess," he said. "The only thing that I don't really like is the extensive preparation that is required at higher levels because there's a lot of use of computers and less of my own skills."

Chopra said the most demanding part of the game is sustained concentration. "You can play 40 good moves, but one mistake can make it all for nothing," he said, recalling a nearly eight-hour, 100-move game at the 2025 Grand Swiss.

His composure under pressure has become one of his defining strengths.

"I usually don't get nervous in critical positions and low time, because I know that it will just make matters worse," Chopra said. "I just focus on the position and don't think about the result in these scenarios. Plus, I think I'm naturally gifted with strong nerves. This is not to say that I don't get nervous, but I'm usually able to deal with it and even utilize it to focus more."

SLU chess coach Varuzhan Akobian said Chopra has made an immediate impact on the program.

"Aryan is an exceptionally talented chess Grandmaster, and I am very glad to have him on our SLU A team," Akobian said.

As he continues his collegiate career, Chopra remains focused on contributing to SLU's success while pursuing his long-term goals in international chess.

SLU will compete in the President's Cup, the national collegiate chess championship, hosted by the University of Missouri. The tournament runs from March 21-22.