R Praggnanandhaa remains only Indian in world chess top 10
Grandmaster Nihal Sarin reached a career-best world ranking of 19 following his performance in Montenegro, according to the Times of India.
R Praggnanandhaa is the only Indian player in the top 10 of the November 2026 FIDE world rankings, holding the position of World No. 7, according to the Times of India.
Grandmaster Nihal Sarin reached a career-best World No. 19 in the latest rankings. His rise followed a performance at the 41st European Chess Club Cup in Budva, Montenegro, where he scored 5 points from six games and won the individual gold medal on board two.
In the Open category, Arjun Erigaisi is ranked No. 12 and Viswanathan Anand is at No. 14. Reigning world champion D Gukesh is ranked 26th with 2710 points. Pentala Harikrishna and Karthikeyan Murali moved to World No. 57 and No. 58 respectively, while Leon Luke Mendonca dropped out of the top 100.
India has 11 players in the women's top 100. Koneru Humpy is the highest-ranked Indian woman at World No. 9, followed by Divya Deshmukh at No. 12 and R Vaishali at No. 24. Harika Dronavalli is ranked 26th, while Deekshitha Modipalli fell from No. 29 to No. 87.
At the federation level, India holds the second position in the Open, Women's, and Mixed categories. The USA leads the Open rankings with an average rating of 2719, while China leads the Women's and Mixed categories.