Arjun Erigaisi Topples Viswanathan Anand, Becomes New India No. 1 In FIDE List For April

Seven months after Dommaraju Gukesh did it, Arjun Erigaisi has done it too. The 21-year-old has displaced the legendary Viswanathan Anand as the top-ranked Indian in the world chess federation (FIDE)'s published rating list for April. With that, the country now has a new number 1 in the sport. (More Chess News)

Erigaisi has entered the top 10 of the FIDE rating list for the first time, climbing to world number 9 with a standard rating of 2756. Anand follows at the 11th spot, with a rating of 2751.

Erigaisi added 8.3 Elo rating points from the 5th Shengzhen Chess Masters and Bundesliga West, which took him to the India no. 1 position. He is currently in action at the GRENKE Chess Open 2024, where with six points out of a possible seven, he is trailing three leaders by half a point.

Meanwhile, the three Indians who will compete at the prestigious Candidates tournament in Toronto from April 3-22 - Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi round up the India top 5 in the latest FIDE list. The 18-year-old Pragg is placed 14th with a rating of 2747, 17-year-old Gukesh is 16th with 2743 points and Vidit, 29, is ranked 25th with 2727 points.

Chess titan Magnus Carlsen continues to be world number 1 with a rating of 2830, and Americans Fabiano Caruana (2803 points) and Hikaru Nakamura (2789 points) follow him at second and third spots respectively.

In the women’s ratings, there were no major rank changes for Indians. Three players from the country are in the world top 15 - Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli and Rameshbabu Vaishali. Humpy is ranked fifth with a rating of 2546, while Dronavalli is placed 11th with 2503 points. Vaishali, who will be the only Indian to compete in the FIDE Women's Candidates, is in 15th spot with 2475 points.