Shyaam Nikhil Ponnusamy is an Indian chess grandmaster from Tamil Nadu who began tournament chess at the age of eleven. In 2007 he won the World Youth Chess Olympiad with the India under-16 team alongside Adhiban Baskaran, and he made his first Grandmaster norm at the 4th Mayor's Cup in Mumbai in September 2011, adding a second the following month at the National Premier Championship.

The final norm proved a long wait: he won the 26th National Youth Under-25 Championship in 2017 and the Commonwealth Chess Championship in Sri Lanka in 2022, before finally securing his Grandmaster title in May 2024, more than a decade after his first norm.