Viswanathan Anand, 52, back in top-10 after 32 months in world chess rankings

chess legend Viswanathan Anand has regained his form and how! Four days after beating Magnus Carlsen at the world champion's home in the fastest format, 52-year-old Anand became one of the oldest to re-enter the world's top-10 rankings - the elite club he once ruled for almost 25 years since 1991. A second-round victory over former world champion Veselin Topalov - in a battle of veterans - in the Norway chess tournament, at Stavanger on Thursday, gave Anand 4.7 points while a winning start in the meet against 2750 Elo Vachier-Lagrave added five points to his tally. With an impressive start in the classical format in Stavanger, Anand gained 9.7 rating points to take his tally to 2760.70. He moved six places up to be ninth in the live ratings. The last time Anand was in the elite bracket was 32 months ago - in October 2019. In a tweet, Emil Sutovsky, the director general of Fide, said, "Vishy re-enters top-10 with an impressive start in Stavanger. While he is not the first 50+ player to accomplish it, he might well be the last. Hard to imagine any of the top young stars to do the same in 20 years."

In the live chess ratings among the top 30 players in the world, Anand at 52 is the oldest while 47-year-old Topalov follows the five-time world champion at the 22nd position. At 2861.1 Elo, Carlsen continues to lead the pack with a handy lead of 55 points.