Indian challenge ended at the World Chess Cup following Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta's defeat against Chinese Grandmaster Xiangzhi Bu in the second game of the third round in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.
Hundreds of students from the Velammal Vidyalaya, the school where Gukesh studies, lined up at the airport at least one hour before his flight landed to greet the 17-year-old chess prodigy.
Vidit Gujrathi crashed through the defences of Hans Moke Niemann of the United States to join the leaders' pack on 4.5 points.
With Carlsen ahead 3.5-2.5 and six games to come, Anand will have to chalk out a plan to neutralise the Norwegian's big advantage in very quick time.
The Indian men's and women's teams cruised to identical 4-0 victories over Wales and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia respectively in the first round of the 40th Chess Olympiad at the Wow Hotel and Convention centre in Istanbul.
Indian Grandmasters Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Adhiban Baskaran registered wins in the first game of the two-game mini match in the second round of the FIDE chess World Cup in Sochi on Thursday.
After six draws in a row, Praggnanandhaa was relieved after the victory, a result of Gupta's blunder under time pressure.
Vaishali came back from 2-4 down to oust the experienced Ukrainian by winning the last two bullet games.
In the women's section being held simultaneously, the Indians came back strongly to beat Poland 3-1 aided by victories from D Harika and Tania Sachdev on board two and three. Its surprising that Tania Sachdev was rested in the previous round when the Indian team drew with Serbia, losing on last two boards.
Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi drew with Richard Rapport of Hungary in the ninth round to be in joint third place with 5.5 points in the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.
The Chennai-based Anand, who is making his maiden appearance at the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour, settled for a 82-move draw in the opening game of the best-of-four contest.
S L Narayanan, Harsha Bharathakoti, Karthik Venkataraman and Shamsiddin Vokhidov, the other players who had an outside chance of a shot at the title, missed out after drawn games.
The victory came for the Indian maestro after three straight draws in rounds 10, 11 and 12
Norway's Carlsen wins World Chess Championship for fourth time
Abhijit Kunte and Surya Shekhar Ganguly scored victories in a 3-1 victory over The Philippines in the third round of the Chess Olympiad.
The Indian men went down to the United States of America 1-3 on Thursday and are now on the verge of going out of medal contention in the World Team Chess championship in Ningbo, China.
International Master Magesh Chandran and Woman International Master Dronavalli Harika continued to hold fort in Sri Lanka.
Following the win, Anand thanked his wife, Aruna for pushing him to play the tournament despite the risk of missing her 50th birthday.
Teen sensation R Praggnanandhaa will enter as the favourite among the three Indian participants in the Candidates chess tournament that will get underway in Toronto from Wednesday to decide the challenger for the next world championship match.
International Master Tania Sachdev led the charge as the Indian women's team crashed through the defenses of Israel and romped to a huge 3.5-0.5 victory in the 10th and penultimate round of the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul.
D Gukesh struck back after recovering from a sedate start to defeat compatriot R Praggnanandhaa and Vincent Keymer in the Superbet rapid and blitz tournament
Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa committed a time-pressure blunder as he suffered defeat at the hands of Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran in the second round of Prague Masters Chess tournament in Prague.
Playing as a wildcard in the tournament, the Indian ace had on Thursday defeated Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland in the first round, before getting the better of American Wesley So and Anton Korobov (Ukraine).
Meanwhile in the women's event, Padmini Rout and R Vaishali joined compatriot Bhakti Kulkarni in the second round.
Viswanathan Anand trumped former World champion Garry Kasparov in the much-awaited contest of the Croatia Grand Chess Tour in Zagreb on Saturday.
Seventh-round loss gave me energy, motivation to aim for title: Gukesh
Top seeded Grandmaster Erigaisi Arjun played out a draw with eventual winner Bardiya Daneshvar of Iran in the ninth and final round to finish in the top 10 at the Sharjah Masters International chess tournament in Sharjah.
Six-time world champion Viswanathan Anand will be a part of the Indian team for the Chess Olympiad to be held in Georgia later this year after he accepted the request from the All India Chess Federation.
International Master Tania Sachdev registered her sixth victory in seven games as the Indian women's team cruised to a 3-1 victory over lower-ranked Estonia to take the joint-fourth spot after the seventh round in the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul.
He also went on to laud the 18-year-old Indian grandmaster and explained why he was taking more time initially in the game.
England batting mainstay Joe Root explained what made Ashwin, who combines a spinner's guile with a fast bowler's aggression, such a difficult bowler to play.
Indian men managed to beat a spirited Egypt in the eighth round to help themselves from occupying the bottom place in the World Team Chess Championships in Ningbo, China.
On a disappointing day for India, the men's team bowed out of medal contention after conceding another draw, while the women were tamed 1-3 by Russia in the ninth round of the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul.
Hungarian boys tallied an impressive 29.5 point out of a possible 40 and won the championship.
It's been seven years since a chess player got the Arjuna award and the iconic Viswanathan Anand is hoping that India's triumphant campaign at the online Chess Olympiad will change this when the national sporting honours are announced next year.
The Indian men's hockey team will participate in the special sessions during a week-long camp at SAI, Bengaluru, to be overseen by India's chief coach Craig Fulton.
FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich said the chess world was moving online which would help the sport reach its full potential.
Indian women drubbed Mongolia to climb to the joint top position while their male counterparts slipped to the fourth spot with a shocking defeat at the hands of lower-rated Philippines after the fifth round of the chess competitions in the Asian Games in Guangzhou on Monday.
Grandmasters M R Lalith Babu and Henrik Teske of Germany played out a hard-fought draw between them to maintain their lead at the end of the seventh round of the 5th Chennai Open International Grandmasters chess tournament in Chennai on Saturday.
Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi on Tuesday said "everything came together" for him at the Grand Swiss event on his way to the Candidates.
