Arjun Erigaisi returns to top 5, D Gukesh slips to No 10 in latest FIDE rankings

Arjun Erigaisi continued his lead as India’s top-ranked chess player as he remains the only Indian in the top five of the latest FIDE rankings. R Praggnanandhaa is ranked at the seventh spot while the reigning World Champion D Gukesh has dropped a spot to 10th in the latest update.

While three Indians are in the top 10, two more are in top 30. Former World Champion Viswanathan Anand is ranked No 12 while Vidit Gujrathi is the 29th best player in the world currently.

Gukesh’s slide continues

After a third-round exit in the recent Chess World Cup, Gukesh further slipped from the ninth spot to 10th in the latest world rankings. The youngest-ever World Champion lost nine Elo points and now is at 2754 rating points, 40 below his peak of 2794 that he achieved in October 2024.

Recently, Gukesh’s coach Grzegorz Gajewski defended his slide in rating saying “transitional period” for the World Champion.

“It’s very typical for anyone who has been working their whole life to achieve something and then they finally achieve it. It puts you in a difficult situation because you have to come up with new objectives, new ways to motivate yourself. It’s kind of a transitional period for Gukesh,” Gajewski told The Indian Express.

“We should not forget he’s very young and the competition is very strong. It’s not like by winning the title, he got the monopoly on winning all the games he plays. It’s a very competitive sport and all the others are working very hard to beat him,” he added.

Meanwhile, Arjun gained 6 Elo rating points from his quarter-final finish at the Chess World Cup.

Magnus Carlsen continues to lead the world rankings while the American duo of Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruano follows him at the second and third spot respectively. Vincent Keymer continues to hold on to the fourth position. Among women, Hou Yifan maintains her grip over the top position.