Chess: 17-year-old GM Gukesh dethrones Viswanathan Anand to become highest Indian in FIDE Rankings

Add as a preferred source on Google

Baku (Azerbaijan), Aug 4: 17-year-old India Grandmaster D Gukesh has dethroned his idol Viswanathan Anand in the live world (FIDE) rankings with a win over local favourite Misratdin Iskandarov in a second-round match on Tuesday (August 1) of the FIDE World Cup.

Gukesh outclassed Azerbaijan's Iskandarov in 44 moves in the second game of their second-round match. FIDE, the international chess federation, took to their handle on X, formerly known as Twitter, to announce the teenage prodigy's achievement.

"Gukesh D won again today and has overcome Viswanathan Anand in live rating! There is still almost a month till the next official FIDE rating list on September 1, but it's highly likely that the 17-year-old will be making it to the top 10 in the world as the highest-rated Indian player," FIDE said in a tweet.

The latest gain of 2.5 rating points took Gukesh's live rating to 2755.9, while Anand's is 2754.0. As a result, Gukesh replaced Anand as the World No. 9 in live rankings while the five-time World champion slipped to 10th.

Anand, who first made it to the World's top 10 in July 1991, has remained India's top-ranked player in all published lists since January 1987. Gukesh will take on compatriot S L Narayanan in the third round.

Meanwhile, a bunch of Indians advanced to the third round on Thursday. In the men's section, GM R Praggnanandhaa, a winner over Maxime Lagarde, Nihal Sarin won while D Harika and R Vaishali moved into the next round.

Indian GM B Adhiban bowed out, losing 0.5-1.5 to Daniil Dubov while unfancied compatriot Karthik Venkataraman held the No.2 seed Hikaru Nakamura to a 1-1 score and forced a tie-break.

206 contestants in the open and 103 in the women's section are in pursuit of three qualifying places (in each section) for the 2024 FIDE Candidates Tournament, which will take place next April in Toronto, Canada. With an unprecedented prize fund of USD 2.5 million, the largest prize fund for any chess tournament ever played, the stakes are higher than ever before.