Fide Rankings July 2008 : Anand on Top and big suprise Carlsen on sixth !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Despite sliding five points, World Champion Viswanathan Anand continued to reign supreme in the latest world rankings issued by the International Chess Federation (FIDE).
Magnus Carlsen is only sixth on the official FIDE list, although up-to-date rating calculations put him on a history-making second place. The media (and chess fans) assumed that would be his place on the FIDE list, but a missed deadline thwarted that. Alexander Morozevich is second Vassily Ivanchuk third. Here are the FIDE and the Live Rating lists.

Anand is followed by Russian Alexander Morozevich and his upcoming world championship match contender compatriot Vladimir Kramnik, both just 10 ELO points adrift of the Indian at ELO 2788.

Another up-and-comer is roller coaster Vassily Ivanchuk, who gained 41 points (in words: forty would you believe it one) from 25 games to jump from place 11 to place 4, four points ahead of number five, Veselin Topalov, who gained ten points from ten games.

Next in line is Magnus Carlsen, who just turned 17½ and, as everyone knows, is de facto number two in the world. Magnus won the Aerosvit tournament in Foros with a stunning 2877 performance, but the tournament ended four days after a deadline set by FIDE for submission of tournaments for the rating list (the 15th of the previous month). So Magnus has landed on place six, two points behind Topalov. Fortunately we now have a "Live List" which give accurate, up-to-the-minute ratings for players over 2700.

Links :

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4738

http://ratings.fide.com/toplist.phtml

http://chess.liverating.org/

Notable Changes

The list above includes all relevant events played. In the top of the list, we see that Morozevich has caught up with Kramnik, who hasn't played any games in this rating period. The reason for Morozevich being ranked ahead of Kramnik despite them having the exact same rating, is FIDE's tie-break criteria, which is number of games played. Moro won the big majority of his 14 point gain by winning Bosna Sarajevo in style, while snatching the final points needed in the Bosnia Herzegovina league competition. Ivanchuk has made a huge leap upwards after several strong events, mainly his break-out win in MTel, with a TPR of 2977 after an undefeated 8/10. The same event was miserable for Aronian, who ended up dropping out of top 10 for the first since time since April 2005. Topalov and Carlsen gained around 10 points each, but both were pushed one place down due to Ivanchuk's big leap.

In the lower half of the list, we can welcome several players to the 2700 club, most of them for the first time: Since the April list, Movsesian (2723), Gashimov (2717), Eljanov (2716), Dominguez (2708), Milov (2705) and Wang Yue (2704) have crossed the somewhat less magical 2700-border - the lesser magic explained by a record-breaking 29 players above 2700.

Fide Rankings : Anand leads April 2008 FIDE ratings, Carlsen fifth , Aronian Sixth

The World Champion gained four points to cross the 2800 mark and top the rankings alone. Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov shed points to move to second and fourth; Alexander Morozevich gained points to move to third place. But the sensation is of course Magnus Carlsen, who at 17 years and four months is in place five, just 38 points below the leader. Is this a record?

World Champion Viswanathan Anand has gained four points to cross the magic 2800 line and top the April 2008 alone (in the previous list he was equal first with Kramnik). Vladimir Kramnik shed eleven points to move to second place at 2788. Third is Alexander Morozevich who gained nine to reach 2774; fourth Veselin Topalov who lost 13 to sink to 2767.

The sensation of the list, of course, is the Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen (above), who at the age of 17 years and four months has climbed to place five in the world rankings, having gained a resounding 32 points to bring his Elo rating to 2765. Statisticians and historians need to get to work: is it the first time ever for a 17-year-old? Has anyone at that age ever approached the top rating by 38 points? Is there anything to stop this lad from becoming world champion? We for our part can only say: congrats Magnus, keep it up! You are one of the most intriguing personalities in current-day chess.

Going down the list a bit we find that Levon Aronian has gained 24 points to install himself firmly in place six. It is interesting to note that the Armenian is just two points behind Carlsen and four shy of Topalov. Other notables in the April 2008 list:

• 21-year-old Teimour Radjabov has gained 16 points to move from place 12 to place eight.
• Peter Svidler lost 17 points to drop from place five to nine (but hey, he's still in the top ten).
• Peter Leko, who is having a bad spell, dropped 12 points and two ranks to end at tenth and 2741.
• Vassily Ivanchuk, who in October 2007 was second in the world, is now number 11 at 2740.
• Alexei Shirov lost fifteen points to drop from seventh to 12th at 2740.
• Big winners are Chinese GMs Bu Xiangzhi and Ni Hua, who gained 17 and 23 points respectively to come in at 21st and 23rd in the world. GM Wang Hao gained 19 points to move from 48th to 34th.
• There are no women in the top 100 list – Judit Polgar has dropped out, perhaps due to inactivity (but see women's list below)?!

FIDE April 2008 Rating List

Top 53 Women April 2008

Here is where we find Judit Polgar, at the top of the Women's list. She has gained two points from 13 games played in the rating period, so we really do not understand why she is not in the main list. Probably just a glitch in the generation of the list.

In second place is the second female player in history to cross the 2600 mark, Koneru Humpy. In third, snapping at her heels, is the Chinese chess phenomenon Hou Yifan, who turned 14 just a month ago. Like Carlsen all we can say is: who is to stop this lass from becoming world champion?

Top 20 Girls April 2008

We can only repeat ourselves: guess who is the strongest girl in the world. Yifan, the chess marvel, who is 63 points ahead of Anna Muzychuk in second. Our friend Katya Lahno is closing in in third, with another favourite, Harika, in fourth place.

FIDE

FIDE RATINGS: Kramnik, Anand Tie for Top Spot in Jan 2008

Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik caught up with World Champion Viswanathan Anand to tie for the top position both with ratings of 2799 in the January 2008 FIDE Rating List. In the juniors, Magnus Carlsen edged out Sergey Karjakin for the top spot.

See calculations of Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand, and of Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin.

The tie between Anand and Kramnik is a precursor to their exciting World Championship Match this October in Bonn, Germany.

Another interesting points in FIDE rating list jan 2008 are

• Alexei Shirov gained 16 points to move from 10th to 7th;
• Magnus Carlsen gained 19 points to move from 16 to place 13;
• Sergey Karjakin gained 38 points to move from 24 to 14;
• Gata Kamsky gained 12 to move from 17 to 15;
• Ivan Cheparinov gained 43 (!) to move from place 42 to place 19.

Fide rankings : http://www.fide.com/ratings/toplist.phtml

Courtesy: Fide Article @ http://www.fide.com/news.asp?id=1556