R Praggnanandhaa remains only Indian in world chess top 10
Grandmaster Nihal Sarin reached a career-best ranking of World No. 19 in the November 2026 FIDE world rankings.
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has released its November 2026 world rankings, showing R Praggnanandhaa as the sole Indian player in the Open Top 10 at World No. 7. According to the Times of India, the Indian contingent includes 13 players in the Open Top 100.
Grandmaster Nihal Sarin entered the world's top 20 for the first time, reaching World No. 19. 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 holds the 26th position with 2710 points. Pentala Harikrishna and Karthikeyan Murali moved up to World No. 57 and No. 58 respectively, while Leon Luke Mendonca fell 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 dropped 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 has the highest average rating in the Open category at 2719, compared to India's 2706. China leads the Women's and Mixed categories.