India, Nov. 13 -- Magnus Carlsen is on the brink of losing his No 1 spot after more than 15 years at the top. After four consecutive draws in the fast classic group stage of the Total Chess pilot in Budapest, Carlsen lost to Haik Martirosyan with Black on Friday. Contrastingly, Caruana, on an unbeaten run so far, defeated Vincent Keymer to climb to 2800.3. Only nine points now separate both players on the live classical rating list. Incidentally, it was Martirosyan's first Fide-rated classical meeting against Carlsen.

Caruana, long among the world's strongest and most consistent players, has spent much of his career in Carlsen's shadow. The two met in the 2018 World Championship match, which produced 12 consecutive draws before Carlsen p...