The International Chess Federation just released its March FIDE rating list on Saturday. And two of the best players India has witnessed in the present Chess arena have attained a spot in the Top 10 of FIDE classical ratings. It includes India’s reigning World Champion Dommaraju Gukesh making it to the Top 3 ranking, his career best till date and R Pragganandhaa securing a spot back in the Top 10.
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) March 1, 2025
18-year-old youngest World Chess Champion D Gukesh is in his best form right now, ever since he has defeated China’s Ding Liren to claim the world title in Singapore last December. His current rating stands at 2877 with a gain of 10 points in the Championship. Gukesh is behind only to Norway’s Magnus Carlsen who leads the rankings with 2833 points, followed by Hikaru Nakamura placed on the second spot with 2802 points. Carlsen continues to be the best Chess player in the world at present.
The Indian Grandmaster has surpassed Indian star Arjun Erigiasi who stands at no.5 with 2,777 points. The latter had a deduction of 24 points. Gukesh even took over USA’s Fabiano Caruana who also had a dip of 20 points, finishing with a rating of 2783 points.
It’s a comeback for R Pragganandhaa, as the Indian chess player has made it to the top 10 back again. This is his first since July last year. Currently, Pragganandhaa is competing in the Prague masters. He moved to the eighth spot gaining 17 points finishing at a rating of 2758. Pragganandha’s win at the Tata Steel Masters soared his rankings, he defeated compatriot D Gukesh only on a tiebreak in Wijk aan Zee.
Further, talking about the Indian women in Chess. Koneru Humpy is the only Indian woman in the top 10 of the women rankings. She secured the sixth spot with a ranking of 2528 points gaining five. No other Indian women chess player could make it to the best 10 of the world. R Vaishali secured 14th rank with a rating of 2484 and Harika Dronavalli at 16th with 2483 points. Hou Yifan of China continues her dominance, being at the first spot of the women rankings with a rating of 2633 points.
Notably, the FIDE ratings are different from the live Elo ratings.