52-year-old Viswanathan Anand returns to top-10 in chess rankings after 32 months

Fifty-two-year-old Indian chess great Vishwanathan Anand has made a fantastic return to the top-10 chess rankings after a gap of 32 months, following his winning run at the Norway Chess Tournament in Stavanger. The former world champion defeated China's Wang Hao in the third round early on Friday, after storming his way into the top 10 on Tuesday. Courtesy of his return to the world’s top-10 rankings, Anand has become one of the oldest players to achieve this feat. 

Anand achieved the feat after a win against World no. 1 Magnus Carlsen on Monday, followed by three straight wins over former world champion Veselin Topalov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Hao. He started the Norway chess tournament with a win over Vachier-Lagrave in the first round, followed by a win against Topalov in the second. Thursday’s win against Topalov at Stavanger gave him 4.7 points, while a winning start in the meet against Elo Vachier-Lagrave added five points to his tally. 

Courtesy of the impressive start in the classical format at the Norway Chess, Anand gained 9.7 rating points, which took his tally to a total of 2760.70. He moved six places from 15th to ninth in the live ratings. It is pertinent to mention that, the last time Anand found himself at the top-10 in the standings was in October 2019.

'Vishy re-enters top-10 with an impressive start in Stavanger': FIDE director-general Emil Sutovsky

Meanwhile, the director-general of FIDE, Emil Sutovsky took to his official Twitter handle on Thursday to make the announcement. “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 anyone of the top young stars to do the same in 20 years. But if you had to choose, whom would you bet on?” he wrote.

Among the top 30 players in the live chess ratings, Anand at the age of 52, is the oldest player on the list. The 47-year-old Topalov follows the five-time world champion in the 22nd position. At the same time, Magnus Carlsen leads the chart with a handy 55-point lead.

(Image: PTI)