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D Gukesh posted a win over home favourite Misratdin Iskandarov in a second round match of the World Cup at Baku, Azerbaijan on Tuesday and overtook senior compatriot Viswanathan Anand in the live world (FIDE) rankings. The 17-year old Gukesh outclassed Iskandarov of Azerbaijan in 44 moves in the second game of their second-round match. "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," the international chess federation (FIDE) said in a tweet. If he stays ahead of Anand till September 1, he will become the first Indian to surpass Anand since Pravin Thipsay in July 1986 in the FIDE world rankings. Gukesh has been set on achieving this target for a while now. Speaking to ESPN in June, Gukesh had outlined his goals for the year: "My very short-term goal is to enter the top-10. I'm quite close to it, almost there. In a few years, I would like to see myself competing seriously in the World Championship cycle. First of all, I would like to qualify for the Candidates tournament. I believe I have a fair shot and I'll give my best. After Vishy [Anand] sir, I don't think anyone came close to qualifying for the Candidates. Right now, with this whole group of young talents, it's a very fair shot." The latest gain of 2.5 rating points took Gukesh's live rating to 2755.9, while Anand's is 2754.0. As a result, Gukesh replaced Anand as the World No. 9 in live rankings while the five-time World champion slipped to 10th. Anand, who first made it to the World's top-10 in July 1991, has remained India's top-ranked player in all published lists since January 1987. Gukesh will take on compatriot S L Narayanan in the third round of the World Cup. Meanwhile, quite a few Indians advanced to the third round on Thursday, including R Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin in the men's section and D Harika and R Vaishali in the women's. Indian GM B Adhiban bowed out, losing 0.5-1.5 to Daniil Dubov while unfancied compatriot Karthik Venkataraman held the No.2 seed Hikaru Nakamura to a 1-1 score and forced a tie-break. (With inputs from PTI)
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