D Gukesh, the 16-year-old Grandmaster from Chennai, became only the sixth Indian to reach and cross the coveted 2700 ELO ratings mark in chess. Following his victory against GM Le Quang Liam from Vietnam in the Biel Chess Festival (Classic) in Switzerland on Saturday to take his point tally to 2.5 in 3 games, the young grandmaster’s Live ELO ratings went up to 2703.9.
Only two other players - China’s Wei Yi (some months before turning 16) and Iranian-born French player Alireza Firouzja achieved this earlier than the 16 years and nearly 2 months old Gukesh, even as world champion Magnus Carlsen attained a FIDE rating of 2700 when he was 16 and a half years old. Note, this is a live rating; FIDE updates its ratings list every month and Gukesh would have to avoid setbacks for the live rating to stay above 2700 in the games he will have to play in the next 15 days.
