The tone of the international chess federation (FIDE) tweet said it all. Grandmaster D Gukesh, 17, had defeated the home favourite Misratdin Iskandarov in the second round of the World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Tuesday. It took Gukesh past his role model Viswanathan 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," FIDE tweeted.
It was a big, big deal. For the first time since 1987, there is an Indian ranked above Anand in published lists.
The 2.5 rating points Gukesh got after the result took his live rating to 2755.9. Anand’s is 2754.0. In this way, Gukesh replaced Anand as the World No. 9 in live rankings. Anand, who first cracked the top-10 in 1991, moved down one place to No. 10.
In the third round, Gukesh was scheduled to play compatriot S L Narayanan.
Thursday was productive for many Indian players. GM R Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin, D Harika and R Vaishali progressed into the next round.
Indian GM B Adhiban lost 0.5-1.5 against Daniil Dubov. But Karthik Venkataraman surprised many by holding second seed Hikaru Nakamura to 1-1 and a tie-break.
Gukesh is a Chennai laad. His father Rajnikanth father is an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) surgeon, who gave up his practice to focus on his son’s career. His mother Padma is a microbiologist. In October 2022, he became the youngest player to beat the then World Champion Magnus Carlsen.
Off the board, Gukesh is known to enjoy cricket, badminton and chaat dishes. He also was a fan of the film ‘Baahubali’. Now he is writing his own epic with his exploits in the historic game of chess.
