Chess Rankings: Arjun Erigaisi 4th, D Gukesh 5th As Nine Indians Ranked In Top-50 In Open Section

Arjun Erigaisi maintained his rating of 2801 and retained the fourth spot while newly-crowned World Classical World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju occupied the fifth position in the classical Open section in the first ranking list of 2025 released by International Chess Federation (FIDE) on Wednesday. Erigaisi, the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to cross the exalted 2800 rating in classical chess, has a rating of 2801 and is just one ELO behind American Hikaru Nakamura (2802). Another American Fabiano Caruana (2803) is a further one ELO ahead at No. 2 position in a hot chase for the second spot behind Magnus Carlsen, who leads the chart with a rating of 2831.

Gukesh, who defeated China's Ding Liren -- ranked 22nd with a rating of 2728 -- to win the World Championship title in Singapore a couple of weeks back, completes the top five with a rating of 2783.

Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand is the third Indian in the top ten, placed 10th in the rankings with a rating of 2750.

Representing the healthy nature of Indian chess following the country's gold medal-winning performance in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, there are nine players from the country in the Top 50 with Praggnanandhaa at 13th with a rating of 2741, VR Aravindh Chithambaram (2726) at 23rd, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (2721) at 24th spot followed by Pentala Harikrishna (2695) at 36th, Nihal Sarin (2687) at 41st and Raunak Sadhwani (2675) at 48th position.

Among the other Indians, Murali Karthikeyan (2651) is at 77th position followed by Leon Luke Mendonca (2639) at 95th, S.L Narayanan (2638) at 9th and Abhimanyu Puranik (2636) at the 100th position.

In the women's section, Chinese players occupy the top four places in the classical rankings, with former