FIDE Chess World Cup: Gukesh enters World’s top-10 after win over Iskandarov

A draw against Iskandarov on Thursday will take Gukesh into the second round. Should Gukesh win again, he will overtake Viswanathan Anand in the live ratings and world rankings.

FILE PHOTO: D Gukesh is now the second-highest-ranked Indian, after Viswanathan Anand. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

For the first time, Grandmaster D. Gukesh moved into the World’s top-10 live rankings - and within 0.60 points of ninth-placed Viswanathan Anand - after opening his World Cup campaign with a win over local talent Misratdin Iskandarov in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Wednesday.

The 17-year-old will play the Azerbaijani rival on Thursday with black pieces and a draw will take him into the second round. Should Gukesh win again, he will overtake Anand in the live ratings and world rankings.

READ MORE: Adhiban, Priyanka into second round, Harsha misses out

R. Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin also won as expected but far more creditable was the effort of Karthik Venkataraman.

Playing with black pieces, the youngster drew with second seed Hikaru Nakamura in 63 moves. In the final position, only the kings were left on the board. In the return game on Thursday, Karthik plays white.

Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, S. L. Narayanan could not prove their rating superiority, Abhimanyu Puranik and B. Adhiban lost to their illustrious rivals.

Most favourites won but Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Wang Hao, Anish Giri, Alexander Grischuk, Wesley So, Teimour Radjabov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Le Quang Liem were held.

Among the women, K. Humpy expectedly defeated teammate N. Priyanka while D. Harika and R. Vaishali won as anticipated.

Mary Ann Gomes used her experience to hold Kateryna Lagno and Divya Deshmukh did well to hold the vastly experienced Hoang Thanh Trang.

The results (involving Indians)

Round 2: Game 1: Open: Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 2628) drew with S. L. Narayanan (2656); D. Gukesh (2744) bt Misratdin Iskadrov (Aze, 2551); Abhimanyu Puranik (2605) lost to Peter Svidler (FIDE, 2688); B. Adhiban (2587) lost to Daniil Dubov (FIDE, 2716); Vidit Gujrathi (2719) drew with Dimitrios Mastrovasilis (Gre, 2587); Nihal Sarin (2688) bt Alex Bachmann (Par, 2604); Sergie Azarov (FIDE, 2589) drew with Arjun Erigaisi (2710); Maxime Lagarde (2599) lost to R. Praggnanandhaa (2690); Hikaru Nakamura (2789) drew with Karthik Venkataraman (2565).

Women: R. Vaishali (2431) bt Pauline Gulchard (Fra, 2384); Mary Ann Gomes (2326) drew with Kateryna Lagno (FIDE, 2552); K. Humpy (2553) bt N. Priyanka (2293); Michalina Rudzinska (Pol, 2257) lost to D. Harika (2500); Hoang Thanh Trang (Hun, 2402) drew with Divya Deshmukh (2400).