CalChess FIDE Top 20 - January 2009

The following list includes the top 20 players (plus ties) presently living in Northern California who played in at least one FIDE rated event on the West Coast during the past year.

Source: January 2009 FIDE rating list.

Youth will be served! Fully 40% of the players listed below are under the age of 21, including four college undergraduates, two high school students and two middle school kids. Inevitably these young players will continue to improve. At the top, CalChess Champion and World U18 co-Champion IM Sam Shankland gained 17 points and closed the gap separating him from his former teachers at the top of the rankings.

1. GM Josh Friedel 2511 (photo at upper left)
   
2. GM Vinay Bhat 2495 (photo at upper right)
   
3. IM Sam Shankland 2453
   
4. IM David Pruess 2422
5. IM Andrei Florean 2420
6. IM John Donaldson 2411
7. IM Vladimir Mezentsev 2403
8. IM Ricardo DeGuzman 2402
9. FM Vladimir Strugatsky 2397
10. IM Dmitry Zilberstein 2393
11. FM Daniel Naroditsky 2362
12. FM Elliott Liu 2356
13. IM John Grefe 2348
14. FM Shiv Shivaji 2308
15. NM Julian Landaw 2286
16. NM Gregory Young 2264
17. NM Steven Zierk 2259
18. NM Nicolas Yap 2255
19. NM Andy Lee 2240
20. NM Daniel Schwarz 2228

(My current and former students appear in boldface in the rankings. Four are now rated above my current FIDE rating of 2227.)