Praggnanandhaa youngest Indian to cross 2,600 rating

London, December 5

R Praggnanandhaa has crossed the Elo rating of 2,600 at the age of 14 years, three months and 26 days, becoming the youngest Indian ever to get past the 2,600 milestone, and the second-youngest in the world.

Praggnanandhaa achieved this career-high rating at the London Chess Classic. Praggnanandhaa, who is also India’s second-youngest Grandmaster, broke Nihal Sarin’s record of being the youngest Indian to cross 2,600 — Sarin did it at the age of 14 years and 10 months in June this year. Sarin had beaten the record set by Parimarjan Negi in 2009 as a 15-year-old. The youngest-ever player to reach the 2,600-mark in Elo is USA’s John Burke, who rose to 2601 in September 2015 at the age of 14 years and two months. Praggnanandhaa, the World Youth champion (Under-18 category), is participating in the open category of the London Chess Classic. He went past the 2,600 Elo mark when he won his seventh-round game against GM Jules Moussard, to move to 2,602. After Round 7, Praggnanandhaa led with 6.5 points, with India’s Aravindh Chithambaram second with 6 points. They play each other in Round 8.

Viswanathan Anand remains the top Indian player at world No. 15, with an Elo rating of 2,757. Chess’s rating system is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. 

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FIDE vice-president Nigel Short alleged that the Indian federation (AICF) is anti-player as it’s yet to fully implement the Competition Commission of India’s order to re-instate the ratings of some players. — Agencies