3 August 2023, Mumbai: D. Gukesh overtook his idol and mentor Viswanathan Anand in live world rankings after overpowering home-favourite Misratdin Iskandarov in 44 moves for the second time in their second-round match in the FIDE World Cup at Baku (Azerbaijan) on Thursday.
Rating points
The latest gain of 2.5 rating points raised Gukesh’s live rating to 2755.9, while Anand’s is 2754.0. With this, Gukesh replaced Anand as the World No. 9 in live rankings while the five-time World champion slipped to 10th.
Anand, who first made it to the World’s top-10 in July 1991, has remained India’s top-ranked player in all published lists since January 1987.
Indian Chess Master
Dommaraju Gukesh (born 29 May 2006), better known as Gukesh D, is an Indian chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he is the third-youngest person in history to qualify for the title of Grandmaster, which FIDE awarded him in March 2019.
On 16 October 2022, at the age of 16, he became the youngest player ever to defeat then-world champion Magnus Carlsen, when he beat Carlsen in a game at the Aimchess Rapid Tournament. In August 2023, Gukesh became the youngest ever chess player to cross the 2750 ELO mark, by passing former world champion Magnus Carlsen’s record by a few months.
Breaking into top 10
Breaking into the top 10 is just one of the indicators of Gukesh’s potential. In July this year, the 17-year-old had edged past another former world champion, Magnus Carlsen, to become the youngest chess player to cross the 2750 ratings mark. He has also beaten the World No 1 on the board, becoming the youngest player to do so. The boy from Chennai was also the second youngest player to become a GM back in 2019.
Career
Gukesh won the Under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championships in 2015, and the World Youth Chess Championships in 2018 in the Under 12 category. He also won five gold medals at the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championships, in the U-12 individual rapid and blitz, U-12 team rapid and blitz, and the U-12 individual classical formats.
He completed the requirements for the title of International Master in March 2018 at the 34th Cappelle-la-Grande Open.
In October 2022, Gukesh became the youngest player to beat Magnus Carlsen since becoming World Champion, in the Aimchess Rapid tournament.
In February 2023, Gukesh participated in the first edition of the WR Masters tournament in Düsseldorf, where he finished on 5½/9, tying for first place with Levon Aronian and Ian Nepomniachtchi. He came second to Aronian in the tiebreaks.
By ASC Priya