GM D Gukesh overtakes Viswanathan Anand to become India's top-ranked chess player

Teenaged Grandmaster D Gukesh on Tuesday overtook chess ace Viswanathan Anand to become India’s top-ranked player after he posted a win over home favourite Misratdin Iskandarov in a second round match of the World Cup. The 17-year-old Gukesh outclassed Iskandarov of Azerbaijan in 44 moves in the second game of their second-round match and this helped him overtake his idol Anand in live world (FIDE) rankings. “Gukesh D won again today and has overcome Viswanathan Anand in live rating! There is still almost a month till next official FIDE rating list on September 1, but it’s highly likely that 17-year-old will be making it to top 10 in the world as the highest-rated Indian player,” the international chess federation (FIDE) said in a tweet.

Gukesh D won again today and has overcome Viswanathan Anand in live rating!

There is still almost a month till next official FIDE rating list on September 1, but it's highly likely that 17-year-old will be making it to top 10 in the world as the highest-rated Indian player!… pic.twitter.com/n3I2JPLOJQ

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 3, 2023

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. With PTI inputs