D Gukesh attains career-best FIDE ranking, Praggnanandhaa re-enters top 10
What's the story
India's reigning world chess champion, D Gukesh, has achieved a career-best No. 3 ranking in the latest FIDE classical ratings.
This remarkable rise follows his triumph at the World Chess Championship in Singapore last December.
Despite a minor setback at the Tata Steel Masters, where he lost to R Praggnanandhaa on tiebreak, Gukesh's overall performance has remained outstanding.
Here's more.
Career progression
Gukesh's journey to the top
Gukesh, the youngest classical world chess champion at 18, now holds a 2787 rating after gaining 10 points.
He has also surpassed Arjun Erigaisi and Fabiano Caruana in the rankings.
Only Hikaru Nakamura (2802) and Magnus Carlsen (2833) now stand ahead of him on a global scale.
Ranking resurgence
Praggnanandhaa makes a comeback in top 10
R Praggnanandhaa has made a triumphant return to the top 10, his first since July last year.
With a rating of 2758, he gained 17 points after winning the Tata Steel Masters.
This victory also made him the first Indian to claim the title since Grand Master Viswanathan Anand in 2006.
Women's rankings
Indian women maintain strong presence in chess rankings
In the women's rankings, Koneru Humpy remains India's sole top-10 representative at No. 6 with a 2528 rating.
Meanwhile, R Vaishali (2484) and Harika Dronavalli (2483) are holding strong at 14th and 16th, respectively.
The rankings show that Indian women continue to dominate international chess competitions.
Freestyle chess
Gukesh finishes winless in Freestyle Chess Grand Slam
On February 15, Gukesh ended his Freestyle Chess Grand Slam campaign without a single win.
His final match ended in a defeat against Iranian-French grandmaster Alireza Firouzja in the second game of their seventh-place playoff.
The seventh-place playoff match was completely dominated by Firouzja, who defeated Gukesh in just 30 moves.
Meanwhile, the loss saw Gukesh finish eighth overall at the tournament in Hamburg, Germany.
FIDE numbers
A look at the World Champion's FIDE history
As mentioned with his recent climb in the rankings, Gukesh now stands third among active players in the world.
According to fide.com, the World Champion has played 1,129 total games with white pieces and boasts a record of 612 wins, 298 draws, and 219 losses.
Meanwhile, with black pieces, he owns a record of 508 wins, 288 draw,s and 302 losses across 1,098 games.
He has a 462-235-134 standard games record with white pieces and a 386-238-184 record with black.