Monday, September 29

Top FIDE Ratings for October

The world chess federation FIDE released its October rating list this morning. Former FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov (see photo) has taken over the top spot at 2791, just a nose ahead of Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk and Magnus Carlsen. A whopping 32 Grandmasters have achieved "super GM" status with a rating above 2700.

There has been plenty of action over the past three months. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand sits in 5th place and former champion Vladimir Kramnik occupies the 6th place. Amazingly, Anand had been rated in the top three continuously for the past 11 years! Nonetheless, Anand is just 8 rating points out of first and even Kramnik is merely 19 points away. Look further down the rating list for well established names such as Peter Svidler, Alexei Shirov and Alexander Grischuk, all who barely made the top 20 (including ties).

  1. Veselin Topalov, 2791, Bulgaria
  2. Alexander Morozevich, 2787, Russia
  3. Vassily Ivanchuk, 2786, Ukraine
  4. Magnus Carlsen, 2786, Norway
  5. Viswanathan Anand, 2783, India
  6. Vladimir Kramnik, 2772, Russia
  7. Levon Aronian, 2757, Armenia
  8. Teimour Radjabov, 2751, Azerbaijan
  9. Peter Leko, 2747, Hungary
  10. Dmitry Jakovenko, 2737, Russia
  11. Yue Wang, 2736, China
  12. Michael Adams, 2734, England
  13. Sergei Movsesian, 2732, Slovakia
  14. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 2731, Azerbaijan
  15. Sergey Karjakin, 2730, Ukraine
  16. Gata Kamsky, 2729, USA
  17. Peter Svidler, 2727, Russia
  18. Alexei Shirov, 2726, Spain
  19. Pavel Eljanov, 2720, Ukraine
  20. Boris Gelfand, 2719, Israel
  21. Lenier Dominguez, 2719, Cuba
  22. Ruslan Ponomariov, 2719, Ukraine
  23. Alexander Grischuk, 2719, Russia
The Chinese assualt on the top of the ratings charts continues this month with three super GMs. Joining #11 Wang Yue are #26 Bu Xiangzhi (2714) and #28 Ni Hua (2710). The next Chinese player is already knocking on the door: 18 year old Wang Hao (2696).

We can contrast that to the United States, which has only one player in the top 20 (Gata Kamsky) and then one more in the top 80! The lone bright spot remains Hikaru Nakamura, whose 2704 rating places him at exactly #30. Can he go higher?
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