17-year-old Grandmaster D Gukesh has surpassed his idol Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand in the world ranking of International Chess Federation (FIDE).
Grandmaster Gukesh surpassed the five-time World Champion Anand after his victory against Misratdin Iskandarov of Azerbaijan in the second round of Chess World Cup. Gukesh defeated Iskandarov in just 44 moves to gain 2.5 points in the rankings.
After his latest victory, Gukesh now has 2,755.9 points surpassing the 2,754 points of Anand. With these points, Gukesh now sits at the ninth position in the world rankings, while Anand moved down to tenth position.
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The International Chess Federation posted about Gukesh’s achievement on X (fka Twitter), “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.”
Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin congratulated GM Gukesh, who hails from the southern state. Stalin wrote on X (fka Twitter), “Congratulations Grandmaster @DGukesh on your incredible achievement of entering the top 10 of world (FIDE) rankings for the first time. Your determination and skill have propelled you to the top echelon of chess, making you the highest-rated Indian player. Your achievement is an inspiration to young talents everywhere and a proud moment for Tamil Nadu!”
D Gukesh (Dommaraju Gukesh) hails from Chennai, just like his idol GM Viswanathan Anand. Gukesh was introduced to chess at the age of 7 in his school. His first coach at school Mr Bhaskar saw his huge potential back then.
Bhaskar helped Gukesh become a FIDE-rated player just after six months of learning the game. After that, Vijayanand became the coach of Gukesh who helped him attain success at global level. He attained the level of Master (M) in 2015 when he triumphed at the Asian School Chess Champions in the under-9 category.
Gukesh had his first major win in 2018 when he won 5 medals at the Asian Youth Chess Championships. He won the under-12 category with 10/11 points.
Gukesh attained the level of International Master at the age of just 11 years, nine months and nine days. After that, he started working on his goal to become the youngest grandmaster.
Gukesh saw his first grand win in 2019 when he also attained the title of grandmaster at the age of 12 years, 7 months and 17 days. But he missed out on his dream of being the youngest grandmaster by a difference of just 17 days as Sergey Karjakin created the record at 12 years and 7 months.
Last month, Gukesh D created another record by becoming the youngest player in history to cross the mark of 2,750 points surpassing GM Magnus Carlsen, who is currently at the top in world rankings with 2,835 points.