Mumbai, June 28: R Praggnanandhaa reached a historic milestone on Friday, June 27 when he became the No.1 ranked Indian chess player in the live rankings. The 19-year-old achieved the feat by beating Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov with Black pieces in the final round of the UzChess Cup Masters.With the win, Praggnanandhaa’s live rating has jumped to 2778.3. This has made the Indian grandmaster No.4 on the rankings, the highest he has achieved in his career so far. The 19-year-old jumped three places to be in the No.4 spot at the moment ahead of his compatriot and World Champion D Gukesh, who has 2776.6 rating points.
Arjun Erigaisi, who had been India’s highest-ranked player until Thursday, has slipped from third to sixth in the live rankings.