Gukesh D becomes India’s #1 chess player, overtaking Viswanathan Anand

The 17-year-old phenom and Grandmaster has beat Anand, his mentor, by virtue of live ratings which change after every match.

Gukesh will officially surpass Anand when FIDE's rankings are published at the end of August. (Photo: Frans Peeters/Wikimedia Commons; Chess.com)

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Chess prodigy and Grandmaster Dommaraju Gukesh has now become India’s top-ranked chess player, surpassing India’s first GM Viswanathan Anand in live ratings. This comes after the 17-year-old Gukesh qualified for the third round of the FIDE Chess World Cup, a major single-elimination tournament being held in Baku, Azerbaijan. Gukesh beat the home turf’s GM Misratdin Iskandaro to secure a live rating of 2755.9, narrowly beating Anand’s 2754.0.

Anand has been India’s top chess player in the published rankings for the last 36 years. That is also expected to change when FIDE publishes its ratings at the end of this month.

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Gukesh is Anand’s protégé, and saw an electric rise after breaking into the top 100 in 2023. His current world ranking, based on FIDE’s monthly list, is 11. This differs from the live ratings, which are calculated on a daily basis immediately after matches.

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Earlier this July, Gukesh also became the youngest chess player to cross the 2750 mark, edging past a record held by five-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who has been World No. 1 since July 2011. Carlsen’s current live rating is 2838.4, trailed by the US’ Fabiano Caruana at 2786.4.

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Running till August 25, the FIDE World Cup also serves as a qualifier for the 2024 Chess World Championship. A total of 17 Indians have participated in this year’s World Cup. Our contingent includes D Gukesh, Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin, S L Narayanan, Abhimanyu Puranik, Adhiban B, Karthik Venkataraman, Harsha Bharathakoti, Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Vaishali R, Divya Deshmukh, Nandhidhaa P V, Mary Ann Gomesh and Priyanka Nutakki, according to ChessBase India.

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