The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Anand retains second spot

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 02, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Chess

Anand retains second spot

NEW DELHI: World champion Viswanathan Anand remained in second place behind Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov in the latest world rankings list effective from Wednesday.

Anand collected five rating points during the last quarter of the year to reach 2788, behind Topalov who gained one point in three months to be at 2813. Norway’s teenager Magnus Carlsen also retained the third spot by gaining two points and reaching 2772.

Among the Indians, P. Hari Krishna and K. Sasikiran dropped points to slip out of the world’s top-50 bracket. Hari (2679) lost seven points to be ranked 51st from being 43rd in April while Sasikiran (2669) dropped 13 points and slipped 13 rungs to be 61st.

Asian and National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly moved to his career-best rating of 2637. However, among women, National title-holder Kruttika Nadig (2268) dropped a whopping 93 points in three tournaments.

S. Kidambi, whose Grandmaster title application was considered during the FIDE Presidential Board meeting at Krakow, Poland in the third week of June, is still being shown as an International Master. Kidambi, armed with a career-high rating of 2506, has met all technical requirements to become India’s 19th GM.

As per the new FIDE regulations, in future, the ranking lists will be released every two months. The next list will be out in September.

The rankings: World’s Top-10: 1. Veselin Topalov (Bul, 2813), 2. Viswanathan Anand (2788), 3. Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 2772), 4. Levon Aronian (Arm, 2768), 5. Dmitry Jakovenko (Rus, 2760), 6. Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 2759), 7-8. Peter Leko (Hun, 2756), Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 2756), 9. Boris Gelfand (Isr, 2755), 10. Alexander Morozevich (Rus, 2751).

India’s Top-15: 1. Viswanathan Anand (2788), 2. P. Hari Krishna (2679), 3. K. Sasikiran (2669), 4. Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2637), 5. K. Humpy (2623), 6. Parimarjan Negi (2590), 7. Sandipan Chanda (2585), 8. G.N. Gopal (2575), 9. Abhijeet Gupta (2565), 10. S. Arun Prasad (2556), 11. Abhijit Kunte (2515), 12-13. Deepan Chakkravarthy, S. Kidambi (2506), 14. R.R. Laxman (2502), 15. P. Magesh Chandran (2493).

India’s women’s Top-10: 1. K. Humpy (2623), 2. D. Harika (2445), 3. Tania Sachdev (2410), 4. Eesha Karavade (2386), 5. Subbaraman Meenakshi (2357), 6. Swati Ghate (2344), 7. Mary Ann Gomes (2332), 8. Nisha Mohota (2315), 9. Soumya Swaminathan (2309), 10. Kruttika Nadig (2268). — Special Correspondent

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport