D Gukesh scripted history recently, becoming the youngest-ever world chess champion at the age of 18. The Indian grandmaster achieved the feat by defeating defending champion Ding Liren at the World Chess Championship in Singapore. Gukesh notched three wins against two for Liren, and nine draws in the 14 classical rounds.

Both Gukesh and Liren battled hard for supremacy as the match reached the decisive fourteenth game. In the decider, it looked like it would be a draw, with Liren trying to force out a tie-breaker.

But a massive blunder by the Chinese grandmaster in the 55th move saw him resign and concede defeat to Gukesh. Despite his world championship title, Gukesh is still not the best ranked Indian chess player. According to the rankings, Gukesh is currently ranked fifth in the world and Arjun Erigaisi is fourth, which makes him the highest-ranked Indian chess player.

So it wasn’t a surprise that when Gukesh won in Singapore, fans began to hope for a possible title face-off with Erigaisi. Speaking on an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Reddit, India legend Viswanathan Anand weighed in on such a possibility. “5-10 percent chance it can happen,” he said.

Erigaisi had an eventful 2024, which saw him win the WR Chess Masters Cup, the Stepan Avagyan Memorial and the Menorca Open. He also got individual gold on board three at the Chess Olympiad, bagging ten points in 11 games. A chess prodigy, he earned the grandmaster title at the age of 14 years, 11 months, 13 days. In September this year, he became India’s top-rated player and in December, got his peak rating of 2801 which also makes him the fifteenth-highest rated player in history and second Indian to ever get past 2800 after Anand.

If Erigaisi does end up challenging Gukesh for the world championship title, it will be a treat for chess fans.