Teenage chess prodigy from India, GM D Gukesh, moved over of renowned Indian GM Viswanathan Anand in the live global (FIDE) rankings on Tuesday with a victory against Misratdin Iskandarov of Azerbaijan.
In the second game of their second-round encounter, the 17-year-old Gukesh outwitted Iskandarov in 44 moves.
“Gukesh D triumphed one again today, defeating Viswanathan Anand in the live rating! The international chess federation (FIDE) tweeted that the 17-year-old, who is now the highest-rated Indian player, is very likely to reach the top 10 in the world when the next official FIDE rating list is released on September 1.
Gukesh’s live rating increased by 2.5 rating points most recently, bringing it to 2755.9, while Anand’s is 2754.0. Gukesh moved up to No. 9 in the live rankings, taking Anand’s position, while the five-time World champion fell to No. 10.
Anand has consistently been India’s top-ranked player since January 1987 and first cracked the top 10 in the world in July 1991.
Gukesh’s third-round opponent will be fellow countryman S L Narayanan.
On Thursday, many Indians made it through to the third round. In the men’s division, Nihal Sarin triumphed against Maxime Lagarde, GM R Praggnanandhaa, and D Harika and R Vaishali advanced to the following round.
While unheralded compatriot Karthik Venkataraman held the No. 2 seed Hikaru Nakamura to a 1-1 score and forced a tie-break, Indian GM B Adhiban was eliminated after losing 0.5-1.5 against Daniil Dubov.