Chennai, Feb 6 : For the first time in the history, young Indian chess players occupied five slots -- including the top spot -- in the junior world rankings.


The honours go to Grandmasters (GM) the top-ranked R.Praggnanandhaa (Elo rating 2747), D.Gukesh (2743) ranked third, Nihal Sarin (2693) ranked sixth, Raunak Sadhwani (2654) ranked seventh and Leon Luke Meondonca (2631) ranked tenth as per International Chess Federation or FIDE's latest ranking list.

Interestingly, Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh will be playing in the upcoming Candidates Tournament in Canada. The winner of the tournament will challenge the World Chess Champion Liren Ding (2762) for the world title.

In the girls section too two Indian players are figuring in the top 10 club viz Sarayu Velpula (2444-2nd rank) and Woman GM (WGM) Divya Deshmukh (2427, 3rd rank).

In the women's section, India's seasoned GM Koneru Humpy is ranked third with a rating of 2554. Humpy will also be playing in the Women Candidates in Canada.

Though not ranked in the top ten in the world, WGM R. Vaishali will also be competing in the Women Candidates tournament.

However, no Indian chess player figures in the top ten in the Open category.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at v.jagannathan@ians.in)

/IANS