When the FIDE ratings are published at the end of this month, Viswanathan Anand will not be the top-ranked Indian for the first time in 36 years. 17-year-old Gukesh, who only broke into the top 100 in April last year, will overhaul his mentor
When FIDE, the global governing body of chess, publishes its monthly rating list at the end of this month, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand will not be the top Indian in the published classical chess rankings for the first time in 36 years. Anand’s protege Gukesh D ensured he will end the month as the top-ranked Indian after his victory over Mistradin Iskandrov in the second round of the FIDE World Cup at Baku.
The end-of-the-month ratings list will also see Gukesh break into the top 10 ranks for the first time, a lightning-quick rise for a teenager who only broke into the top 100 at the end of April 2022. Only two Indians before this have been in the top 10 — Pentala Harikrishna, who went ahead of Anand briefly in the live ratings in 2016 is the other Indian to have achieved the feat.
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.
“Over the last year and a half, Gukesh has convinced not only me but also many people of his talent. His dedication for chess is something that borders on fanaticism. He likes to work and study the game a lot. He just brings a great attitude to the game. I was convinced he has the potential. But now I’m seeing more and more in him the components he will need to stay at the top: attitude, determination, willingness to experiment and take risks. He’s very courageous,” Anand had told The Indian Express from Baku before the start of the FIDE World Cup.
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!… pic.twitter.com/n3I2JPLOJQ
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 3, 2023
So what makes him different from the other Indian teenage stars, who seem to have sprung up in plenty over the past six years?
Two things stand out: his dislike for online chess played for fun, and how late he started using chess engines.
The Chennai boy didn’t use an engine till he had crossed a rating of 2550. His trainer GM Vishnu Prasanna, who was also India’s 33rd grandmaster, says Gukesh is a “very rare exception” in the sport given how there are kids as young as seven or eight who use engines.
“It’s almost unheard of. The plan was for him to start using an engine when he finds himself in a crisis or hits a roadblock. To test our theories, we would usually rely on tournaments. But because of the pandemic, he couldn’t really play in events as there were no over-the-board tournaments. So the pandemic forced us to make the decision,” Vishnu said.
Another thing that nudged Gukesh to start using engines was him getting picked to train at the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy, where the young crop of teenage Indian players handpicked by Anand would work on things like their openings with computers.