Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hailed Grand Master Arjun Erigaisi's historic achievement of scaling 2800 rating points, a mark where only one other Indian, Viswanathan Anand, had reached so far. (More Sports News)

The 21-year-old only the 16th person in the history of chess to achieve the 2800 rating mark. He is also the third youngest ever and the youngest from India to do so. Arjun touched the mark in live ratings on Thursday, October 24.

Modi congratulated Erigaisi in X saying that the youngster's achievement will inspire more youngsters to take up chess.

"Congratulations to Arjun Erigaisi for crossing the 2800 mark in live chess ratings! This is a phenomenal feat. His exceptional talent and perseverance make our entire nation proud," Modi wrote on his X account.

"In addition to being a great personal milestone, it will also inspire many more youngsters to play chess and shine on the global stage. Wishing him the very best for his future endeavours," added Modi.

All time top Elo ratings

Norwegian chess legend Magnus Carlsen touched the 2882 rating mark, the highest ever in history. Only, Garry Kasparov managed to cross 2850 rating. In total, with Erigaisi's arrival, the list of 2800 rating has grown to 16 men.

Here are all of them ranked on the basis of their all-time high ratings.

1. Magnus Carlsen (NOR) - 2882

2. Garry Kasparov (RUS) - 2851

3. Fabiano Caruana (USA) - 2844

4. Levon Aronian (ARM) - 2830

5. Wesley So (USA) - 2822

6. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE) - 2820

7. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) - 2819

8. Viswanathan Anand (IND) - 2817

9. Vladimir Kramnik (RUS) - 2817

10. Veselin Topalov (BUL) - 2816

11. Hikaru Nakamura (USA) - 2816

12. Ding Liren (CHN) - 2816

13. Alexander Grischuk (RUS) - 2810

14. Alireza Firouzja (FRA) - 2804

15. Arjun Erigaisi (IND) - 2802.1

16. Anish Giri* (NED) crossed 2800 mark briefly in 2015 but could not maintain it till the end of month and thus does not feature in the official list.

What is Elo rating?

Elo ratings are the method used to rank chess players based on their ability. Devised by physicist and Hungarian-American chess player Arpad Elo in 1970, the method not only accounts for wins and losses but also factors in the relative strength of the two players involved in a chess match.

The point system in this method is based on the difference in quality of the two opponents. So, for winning the same match, a higher-ranked player will get less points than a lower-ranked player.

So, a superior player can not just keep winning against lower-ranked opponents and boost his/her ratings. That means, as a player goes up in the rankings, he/she finds it difficult to accumulate more points. Also, since the system follows a zero-sum approach, where the loser will lose the number of points the winner will gain, if a higher-ranked player gets beaten by a lower-ranked players, they lose more points.