FIDE'S TOP 10 January 2010 Rating List

FIDE, the official organization of worldwide chess, has put out it's January 2010 rating list.  Rising Super GM Magnus Carlsen is officially #1 in the World with a rating of 2810!  He's followed by World Chess Championship Challenger GM Veselin Topalov at 2805, with current World Champion GM Viswanathan Anand coming in at 2790.  Here is a list of the new top 10 in the world, I will post the link to the top 100 following this small list.

Rank Name Title Country Rating Games B-Year

 1. Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2810 16 1990

 2. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2805 4 1975

 3. Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2790 9 1969

 4. Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2788 16 1975

 5. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2781 17 1982

 6. Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2761 25 1968

 7. Gashimov, Vugar g AZE 2759 21 1986

 8. Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2749 13 1969

 9. Wang, Yue g CHN 2749 8 1987

10. Svidler, Peter g RUS 2744 27 1976

FIDE's List of the Top 100 Active players: (Men + GM Judit Polgar)

Internet Chess Club's Favorite Blitz Player GM Hikaru Nakamura comes in at:

28. Nakamura, Hikaru g USA 2708 7 1987

Still hanging in there above 2700 and being in the top 30 of 1264 active Grandmasters in the list and now the number 1 player in the US isn't too shabby.  I still don't think it's fair to see the lack of invitations he gets to major tournaments, unless he does get them and doesn't accept, I really don't know.  But being above 2700 should bring more major tournaments I think.

Another note, the US gains another Grandmaster with young Ray Robson getting his title in a week or so, he's already rated above 2500, so having to wait for that is no problem, congrats to GM Ray Robson!



The First "Must Have" - " Reassess Your Chess" By International Master Jeremy Silman

Thanks to GM Nakamura (Smallville) for the blitz games!

 Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, whose handle is Smallville on the Internet Chess Club, where TransWarp resides, played 5 blitz games yesterday!  I thank GM Nakamura for taking time out of his day to mess with a computer, I know he likes to play other GMs blitz or 1-minute where he dominates, 1-minute is a special pool where you cannot pick your opponents, there are no computers and you are paired with someone close to your rating.  However, GM Nakamura is so good at 1 minute chess vs other humans, he has chances to lose a lot of points just for a draw, like 15 or 31 for a loss, gaining only 1 point per win most of the time, because of the rating difference.  These games are against players, who at normal tournament speed, would give GM Nakamura a good game, so he can't make a major mistake and if he does, he has to try to survive the minute with fast, defensive moves and win on time, this isn't really frowned on in 1-minute chess as it is in regular blitz chess.  Some Grandmasters don't like it when they have a won game and have to play it out because the other guy wants to win on time in blitz, some would say that's part of the game, but at their level, it can be tedious.

 So thanks to GM Nakamura for playing, I will try to post one or two if he didn't resign early because it's kind of futile to try to win after making a mistake against a computer.  Not trying to brag, it's how strong the computers have become.  I won't be able to afford the next level computer any time soon, TransWarp will become a memory eventually as many great computer accounts on ICC have, too many to name but well respected, mostly crafty chess engines, before Rybka and other types came.  Computer chess is an expensive hobby, to where the real competition, computer vs computer engine games, are played on computers that would buy me a nice used car!  And I don't have a car.  I also want to thank Smallville because the pharmacy made an error and didn't fill my pain meds, I have been suffering over the weekend on small rations of my mophine and percocet so as to not go into full withdrawl, although I am suffering some until my scripts are filled soon.  Both pain and withdrawl symptoms, I have forgotten to take my meds several times in the past and getting towards full withdrawl is terrible.  But it's the lesser of two evils in order to live a productive life.  There's another word they use, but I can't think of it now...  So it was a nice surprise and took my mind off the bad for a while. Thanks again, GM Nakamura.

Round 3 pairings and Round 2 results of London Chess Classic 2009

After 2 rounds at the London Chess Classic 2009, GM Magnus Carlsen 2801 is living up to his rating and has sole lead with 6 points.  Remember the different scoring system, 3 pts for a win, 1 pt for a draw and 0 for a loss.  GM Kramnik made up for his first round loss by posting a win and is at 3 pts with GM Luke McShane who lost.  Here are the current standings.  I will post the Magnus Carlsen game as well.

London Chess Classic 2009 Round 2 Results and Standings:
The number in front of the player's names is their seeding for the tournament.

• 2  GM Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 1-0  6 GM Ni, Hua CHN
• 5  GM Adams, Michael ENG  1/2-1/2  3 GM Nakamura, Hikaru USA
• 4  GM Short, Nigel ENG 1/2-1/2  8 GM Howell, David ENG
• 1  GM Carlsen, Magnus NOR  1-0  7 GM McShane, Luke ENG

Standings after Round 2 with new pt system:

• 1.  6.0  GM Magnus Carlsen 2801 (NOR)
• 2-3  3.0  GM Vladimir Kramnik 2772 (RUS)
• 2-3  3.0  GM Luke McShane 2615 (ENG)
• 4-6  2.0  GM Hikaru Nakamura 2715 (USA)
• 4-6  2.0  GM Michael Adams 2698 (ENG)
• 4-6  2.0  GM David Howell 2597 (ENG)
• 7-8  1.0  GM Nigel Short 2707 (ENG)
• 7-8  1.0  GM Ni Hua 2665 (CHN)
  

 
Round 3 Results.  The Nakamura-Short game was interesting.
 

• 7  GM Luke McShane ENG  0-1  2  GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS
• 8  GM David Howell ENG  1/2-1/2  1  GM Magnus Carlsen NOR
• 3  GM Hikaru Nakamura USA  1/2-1/2   4  GM Nigel Short ENG
• 6  GM Ni Hua CHN  1/2-1/2   5  GM Michael Adams ENG

Round 4 Results Dec 12, 2009 (Saturday) 8am EST 1400 GMT

• 2  GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS  1/2-1/2   5  GM Michael Adams ENG
• 4  GM Nigel Short ENG  1/2-1/2   6  GM Ni Hua CHN
• 1  GM Magnus Carlsen NOR  1/2-1/2   3  GM Hikaru Nakamura USA
• 7  GM Luke McShane ENG  1/2-1/2   8  GM David Howell ENG

GM Magnus Carlsen  VS  GM Luke McShane  Round 2






IF this link works, you will find rare Bobby Fischer signed German Endgame book LEHR-UND HANDBUCH DER ENDSPIELE (HANDBOOK OF ENDGAME).  A start on this site's search ability to find Very Rare to Chess books as low as $1.00  Obviously this one is for the person with a very large pocketbook!  A whole plethora of chess books for the rabid fan.

Nakamura vs Ponomariov in Blitz Tiebreak at Donostia Chess Festival

Smallville plays again! sad msg to TW by who knows....

TransWarp was lucky enough to get some games from Smallville yesterday/one early this morning. As I have said before, I enjoy when Smallville plays. I usually don't get to see the games, like in this case, but when I looked at the account just now and saw that GM Nakamura had taken some time out of his schedule to play some games, I was happy. Then I check my messages and get stuff like this:

33. mdog (19:01 20-Apr-09 EDT): You should be named Smallville killer! or do you pay smallville for rating points, amazing to win like 17 straight vs smallville


Although Smallville is a controversial character on ICC, I doubt he would ever do anything like this for any computer account. (Accept money for pts). Most TW fans who check this site and my website know that I couldn't afford to pay for points, much less one lesson from GM Nakamura, even though it wouldn't do me any good, as I would forget everything in a few days due to the meds.

GM Nakamura enjoys trying different things vs computers and when he sees a position he doesn't like, I think he knows just by his eyes and thought process that it's a position that won't get him anywhere. When I see computer evaluation of early resignations, the computer usually agrees with him.

This isn't the first time people have said that TransWarp is paying for points, or that GM Nakamura is promoting TransWarp. This is silly, what would he have to gain from this? If he wanted to promote something, he would arrange a match with the Deep Rybka programmers, Vasik Rajlich or Larry Kaufman, to get money, but the problem there is that the match would be regular time controls probably and I don't think at the moment that the Rybka team after having several matches with GM's already, doesn't have the sponsorship cash to pay for such a match, I don't speak for Rybka, I just USE Rybka and believe it's the best engine out there. Which is why I state I won't use any other engine for TransWarp. So when/if ever there is that time for a Deep Rybka-GM Nakamura match, imagine the money that the Rybka team would have to cough up. It sure is a lot more than I ever could offer, heck, I'm worried about if I can pay for the website this month...end of the month another $40.00 is due to yahoo...it's a quarterly thing...when I got a website through yahoo again, I thought the payments would be monthly like before...imagine my suprise when they weren't. Luckily, I have overdraft protection, but still had to pay a fee for the check I wrote to the grocery store.

No, I just think GM Nakamura wants to figure out a trick to consistantly beat Deep Rybka 3, imagine the rating points he could get if he does. The risk of only 1 rating point to play TW at this point means he could play two humans at an even ICC ELO, gain enough points to play TW 32 games. We know he can destroy most blitz players on ICC on a regular basis. So pay for points, no...I wouldn't do it either, even if I had a bankroll to get me a computer like some of those on the CB site. The official Rybka machine can use 16 cores...that's a used car for me.

And to GM Nakamura, I didn't write this message, so I apologize for it's posting here, but I will not be even slightly accused of paying for points. Maybe just a trolling line put out there and I bit, but no way will I be accused of such things. It's still amazing to me that people will put this out there, it's been out there before, only to be refuted by level-headed whisperers...or even in other blogs, and I believe denied by Nakamura himself in an old entry in his blog, or it might have been someone else's blog. What surprises me more than Smallville's losses, is the game before, one game by a Chinese IM who played 5 5 rated blitz, one game, got a draw and never went below 5 minutes on his clock. Never seen anything like that before vs TransWarp before. Oh well....

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Smallville Plays again!

One thing I can say about GM Hikaru Nakamura (Smallville), is that he is NOT afraid to risk rating points! To be honest, I would look at the best list and think he wouldn't play while trying to beat the Depressnyak/AndrinoGiardino blitz record, btw, TW held AndrinoGiardino to 1 draw in 12 attempts, of course he quit after getting the draw, something many GM's do. But what does Smallville do? Proves me wrong! In his first game, Smallville gave up 5 points, which is far more than what the average GM was willing to give up even when TW was at 3100! He played 11 games, giving up from 5-3 points at the end. Still more points than the average GM would give up, a select few would, everyone else, it was 1 point or nothing.

It is my opinion that Hikaru is one of the best blitz players in the world. I wonder what he would have scored at the World Blitz Championship held right after Aeroflot 2009. The only thing I could see that would hold him back, is if he's more used to playing two dimensional chess with a mouse, rather than on a DGT board. You have to worry about tipping pieces over, touch-move, and depending on the size of the board he uses on his computer, the time it takes to move a piece, I would think faster to move with a mouse. After all, GM Nakamura is beating top players from around the world very easily.

He's on a roll, almost getting the record AFTER playing TransWarp, just missing it by 1 point, showing how he can still dominate after losing 40 pts, impressive. I don't know who depressnyak is, or AndrinoGiardino...but I DO know who Smallville is, which makes me want him to GET the record. Also because it seems GM Nakamura is not worried about giving a computer a new record, he KNOWS it's a computer, so what does it matter? That's my opinion as well, but some wouldn't want to be known as that person. This is why they don't get 400 people watching them play, while GM Nakamura does. IMHO

One of the more interesting games

Smallville vs TransWarp



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Smallville plays again

GM Hikaru Nakamura ICC Handle: Smallville played TransWarp again, but sadly he tried to keep playing beyond the formula parameters, there's a bug in the system where you can bypass ICC Player Formula Minimum rating to play parameter, I'm not saying GM Nakamura is a bad player, don't get me wrong, but his rating was below 700 pts of TransWarp's, this is usually not the case, I would have loved him to be able to play more games.
But after a person is 716-17 pts below another person's/computer's rating, you play risking 0 rating pts. So in essence GM Nakamura could have played forever and TW would gain nothing but only stand to lose pts..it's only fair.

More details tomorrow and games from Smallville and GM Mamedyarov who also played today, I just don't feel well after trying to walk to the store...very sore and can barely move.