Hyderabad:India's grandmaster (GM) Arjun Erigaisi became the only second Indian after legendary Vishwanathan Anand to surpass the gold-standard ELO rating of 2800. Arjun achieved the incredible feat after securing a thumping victory over Russia's Dmitry Andreikin in the fifth round of the European Chess Club Cup 2024 while playing for Alkaloid team. He registered this win with White Pieces and has also become the World No.3 in the live rating list.
Apart from being the only second Indian, he became the youngest Indian and overall 16th chess player to achieve the elusive milestone. France's GM Alireza Firouzja is the world's youngest chess player to breach the 2800 ELO barrier, crossing the mark at the age of 18 years and five months while World champion Magnus Carlsen is second on the list. Arjun breached the 2800 ELO rating mark at the age of 21 years and 91 days.
Arjun has had a great time in the last few months, having clinched the individual and team gold in the Chess Olympiad 2024 in Budapest and then finished second in TePe Sigeman Chess Tournament. He also won the Menorca Open title while ended fifth in the Sharjah Masters Open.
Arjun had earlier clinched the 2024 WR Chess Masters Cup after defeating French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in Armageddon. Arjun is the top-ranked Indian player in the FIDE standings in the list led by Carlsen with 2831 rating points.
All-time highest-ranked players:
1. Magnus Carlsen (NOR) - 2882
2. Garry Kasparov (RUS) - 2851
3. Fabiano Caruana (USA) - 2844
4. Levon Aronian (ARM) - 2830
5. Wesley So (USA) - 2822