 "R Praggnanandhaa and Koneru Humpy are the top-rated Indians in the FIDE Classical ratings in the 'Open' and 'Women' categories respectively. Image credit: Grand Chess Tour/FIDE")
R Praggnanandhaa remains the top-ranked Indian chess player in the latest FIDE Classical ratings. The 20-year-old, however, missed out on the opportunity to leapfrog Italian-American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana into the top-three despite having had the golden opportunity to do so recently.
Praggnanandhaa had climbed to a career-best No 3 in the live ratings after defeating fellow Indian Grandmaster and reigning world champion D Gukesh in the opening round of the Sinquefield Cup earlier this month.
And he might have sealed his place among the top-three in the FIDE ratings for the first time in his career had he gone on to win the prestigious tournament hosted by the Saint Louis Chess Club in the state of Missouri, USA. ‘Pragg’ finished level on 5.5 points with American GMs Caruana and Wesley So, with the So going on to win the event in the blitz tie-breaks .
Caruana remains marginally ahead of Praggnanandhaa with a Classical rating of 2789 – four rating points ahead of the latter. Arjun and Gukesh, meanwhile, remain fifth and sixth respectively with a rating of 2771 and 2767 respectively despite losing rating points recently.
So and German GM Vincent Keymer, meanwhile, are among the big gainers as the enter the top 10 at the seventh and 10th spots respectively, the latter’s progress influenced by his triumph in the final event of the Grand Chess Tour.
Five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen (2839) and American GM Hikaru Nakamura (2807) continue to occupy the top-two spots on the Classical ratings and currently are the only players with a rating above 2800.
Humpy remains sole Indian in women’s ratings
The FIDE women’s ratings, meanwhile, continues to be dominated by China with the top four spots belonging to Chinese GMs – led by Hou Yifan. Humpy, who had recently finished runner-up at the FIDE Women’s World Cup after losing to Divya Deshmukh in the final, remains the sole Indian among the top-10 with a rating of 2535, the same as Ukrainian GM and former world champion Anna Muzychuk that has the two tied for the fifth spot.
The next highest-rated Indian on the rankings is Deshmukh, who secured her GM status without having to acquire the three norms by winning the World Cup. She currently occupies the 14th spot with a rating of 2478.
GMs Harika Dronavalli (2467) and R Vaishali (2452) occupy the 19th and 22nd spots respectively.