Former chess king Anand lost India's number one spot after 37 years

Gukesh won both games in the second round against host Misratdin Iskandarov, gaining four more Elo's to bring his current multiplier to 2,756, ranking ninth in the world and number one in India, 2 more than Anand 2 Elo. So India has a new number one player since 1986.

Anand 54 years old, was the Chess King from 2007-2013, before losing the throne to Magnus Carlsen. He has held the number one position in Indian chess for the past 37 years and was ranked first in the world in 2007. In 2016, Pentala Harikrishna equaled Elo with Anand, but could not overcome this legend.

Gukesh is 17 years old, the current top young talent in the world, and has improved tremendously over the past few years. When he attended the HDBank international chess tournament in Vietnam in 2019, he and Elo 2,529 had not yet become a Grandmaster. Exactly two years ago, Gukesh's Elo was 2,578, but it's up 178 multipliers so far. He first entered the World Top 100 in May 2022, so far he has been in the Top 10. He is also the youngest player in the World Top 100.

Gukesh is holding the record for being the youngest player in history to reach Elo 2,750, at the age of 17. His best achievement is a gold medal in first table at the 2022 Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India. Gukesh has reached the third round of the 2023 Chess World Cup, and will face compatriot Narayanan Sunilduth Lyna.

The second round witnessed a surprise, when players like Nodirbek Abdusattorov or Shakhriyar Mamedyarov were eliminated. Many other players have to tie-break like Quang Liem, Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave or Anish Giri.

The Vietnamese-born players all stopped in the second round, when Nguyen Thai Dai Van (Czech) lost to Aryan Tari 0.5-1.5, and Hoang Thanh Trang (Hungary) lost to Divya Deshmukh with the same score.