Edited by Deepali Verma
Bharatiya teenager Praggnanandhaa defeated the reigning World Champion Ding Liren in a fourth round clash at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee on January 16.
This win particularly made Praggnanandhaa leapfrog over the five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand as the country’s top-ranked chess player as per the FIDE’s live ratings with a rating of 2748.3, while Anand is at 2748. FIDE is responsible for disclosing the published ratings at the start of each month.
Pragg became the second Bharatiya after Anand, capable enough to defeat a reigning world champion in classical chess.
Starting with the black pieces, Pragg seemed to be holding the advantage on the board from the start. This was his primary win in four rounds at the Tata Steel chess event this year post the three draws. Coincidentally, Praggnanandhaa had managed to defeat Ding at the same event with black pieces in 2023, on January 17.At the time, Ding was the World No 2 and was preparing to compete at the Candidates tournament.
At Wijk aan Zee, Ding is participating in a rare tournament after taking the world championship crown last year by defeating Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi.
Gukesh, on the other hand, who last year became the first Bharatiya to overhaul Anand as Bharat’s No 1 in 36 years in the FIDE published ratings, lost his encounter with Anish Giri. Gukesh had moved past Anish to secure a spot at the Candidates via the ratings route at the very last second.
The third Bharatiya player in the fray, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi managed a draw by Jorden Van Foreest.
Giri, after his victory, is now on top of the leaderboard heading into the first rest day at the Tata Steel Masters chess event. In the standings, Pragg stands at third with Vidit at seventh and Gukesh in 10th spot.
