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In a monumental moment for Indian chess, teenager Gukesh D overtook his idol and Indian legend Vishwanathan Anand to become India's highest-ranking chess player in the FIDE rankings.
This development came on Thursday when Gukesh beat Azerbaijani Misratdin Iskandarov at the ongoing FIDE World Cup in Baku.
This win helped the 17-year-old Indian score a live rating of 2755.9, while Vishwanathan Anand had a rating of 2754.0. With this, Gukesh claimed the world number 9 spot in the Classic Open category, while Anand slipped down to 10th place.
This spells the end of Vishwanathan Anand's 37-year-long streak of being India's highest-ranked player in the FIDE. Anand first broke into the world's top ten in 1991, becoming the first Indian to do so.
Speaking on Gukesh's victory, Vishwanathan Anand was full of nothing but praise for the young star. He tweeted:
"We started off with one GM (Grandmaster), one World Champion, and now we have two top ten players. Congratulations to the generation of Indian talent especially to our new No.1."
Businessperson Anand Mahindra also congratulated Gukesh on Twitter and shared a throwback to when the two of them met for a friendly game.
More about the chess prodigy Gukesh D
Hailing from Tamil Nadu, Gukesh started playing the game at the young age of 7, and had the markings of a prodigy since the beginning.
Gukesh first made a name for himself when he won the Under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championships in 2015. He also won the 2018 World Youth Championships and claimed five Gold medals at the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championships.
Gukesh became the third-youngest person to ever achieve the title of Grandmaster. Another milestone moment in Gukesh's career came when he became the youngest person ever to beat then World Champion, Magnus Carlson.
Overtaking Vishwanathan Anand marks another important peak in Gukesh's career, and fans of the game across the world will be waiting to see more moments of brilliance from the young Indian.
