The Hindu : Sport / Chess : FIDE rankings: Indians make big gains

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FIDE rankings: Indians make big gains

Principal Correspondent

KOZHIKODE: India capped its finest ever year in chess with big gains in the latest quarterly rating list (January 2009) released by the world chess governing body FIDE on Wednesday.

World champion Viswanathan Anand has moved three places up to No. 2 from the October list, when he had gone out of the top three for the first time in 11 years.

Anand has 2791 Elo points, an increase of eight points he gained from his World championship victory against Vladimir Kramnik of Russia. Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov has maintained his No. 1 spot with 2796 points.

Krishnan Sasikiran has climbed 10 places to be ranked No. 25 with 2711 points, an addition of 17 points.

P. Harikrishna (2673) has moved to No. 51, up 11 places, as India continues to have three players inside the world’s top 100.

India ranked eighth

There is more good news with 15-year-old Parimarjan Negi touching the 2600 mark. Koneru Humpy (2621), who remains the World No. 2 among women, and Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2614) too have increased their ratings to help India get a country ranking of No. 8 (based on the average rating of top ten players, 2625). Russia is ranked No. 1 with an average rating of 2723, followed by Ukraine (2691) and China (2645).

World under-16 champion B. Adhiban has made the most spectacular move among the Indians. The Chennai lad has gained an impressive 65 points to take his rating to 2504.

India has made its presence felt in the junior list too. World junior girls’ champion D. Harika (2473) is ranked No. 4, while the boys’ champion Abhijeet Gupta (2569) is placed 18th and five slots above is Negi (2600).

The World top 10: Men: 1.Veselin Topalov (Bul) 2796, 2. Viswanthan Anand (Ind) 2791, 3. Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) 2779, 4. Magnus Carlsen (Nor) 2776, 5. Alexander Morozevich (Rus) 2771, 6. Teimour Radjabov (Aze) 2761, 7. Dmitry Jakovenko (Rus) 2760, 8. Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) 2759, 9. Peter Leko (Hun) 2751, 10. Sergei Movsesian (Svk) 2751.

Women: 1. Judit Polgar (Hun) 2693, 2. Koneru Humpy (Ind) 2621, 3. Hou Yifan (Chn) 2571, 4. Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul) 2557, 5. Pia Cramling (Swe) 2548, 6. Anna Muzychuk (Slo) 2540, 7. Marie Sebag (Fra) 2529, 8. Nana Dzagnidze (Geo) 2518, 9. Maia Chiburdanidze (Geo) 2516, 10. Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus) 2516.

Indian top 10: Men: 1. Viswanathan Anand 2791, 2. Krishnan Sasikiran 2711, 3. P. Harikrishna, 2673, 4. Koneru Humpy 2621, 5. Surya Shekhar Ganguly 2614, 6. Parimarjan Negi 2600, 7. Abhijeet Gupta 2569, 8. Sandipan Chanda 2568, 9. G.N. Gopal 2555, 10 S. Arun Prasad 2552.

Women: 1. Koneru Humpy 2621, 2. D. Harika 2473, 3. Tania Sachdev 2435, 4. Eesha Karavade, 2375, 5. Kruttika Nadig 2367, 6. Soumya Swaminathan 2343, 7. Mary Ann Gomes 2336, 8. Swathi Ghate 2331, 9. S. Meenakshi 2327, 10. Nisha Mohota 2304.

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