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

Linares 2009 Final Round Pairings and standings

Today I'm actually getting to watch one of the most dynamic openings (in my opinion) in the Grischuk-Anand game, the Poisoned Pawn Variation of the Sicilian Najdorf, I will post this game in the previous post. Or this one if I add standings after round 13 here, which I probably will. I'm almost sorry this tournament is coming to an end, but we still have Amber to look forward to watching on March 14, 2009. I love their concept of combining blindfold and rapid formats in one tournament with Super GM's!

Round 14 pairings:

T. Radjabov 1/2-1/2 Wang Yue
L. Dominguez 1/2-1/2 V. Ivanchuk
L. Aronian 1/2-1/2 A. Grischuk
V. Anand 1/2-1/2 M. Carlsen

Final Standings: Linares 2009 GM Alexander Grischuk wins on tiebreaks, GM Ivanchuk was undefeated, but GM Grischuk had more wins so took the title of Linares 2009 Champion. GM Anand finished 4th after winning the last two Linares Tournaments.

1 8.0 GM Alexander Grischuk RUS 2733

2 8.0 GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2779

3 7.5 GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2776

4 7.0 GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2791

5-7 6.5 GM Teimour Radjabov AZE 2761
GM Wang Yue CHN 2739
GM Levon Aronian ARM 2750

8 6.0 GM Leinier Dominguez CUB 2717




GM Grischuk vs GM Anand (Round 13)




Standings after Round 13

1-2 7.5 GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2779
GM Alexander Grischuk RUS 2733

3 7.0 GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2776

4 6.5 GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2791

5-7 6.0 GM Wang Yue CHN 2739
GM Teimour Radjabov AZE 2761
GM Levon Aronian ARM 2750

8 5.5 GM Leinier Dominguez CUB 2717

Linares 2009 Standings and Round 13 pairings

Here are the standings after round 12 of the tournament in Linares, Spain, the annual Super-GM event that a lot of chess fans look forward to watching each year.

GM Magnus Carlsen has made the event a bit more interesting by defeating GM Alexander Grischuk today. GM Grischuk had a full point lead until today.

M. Carlsen 1/2-1/2 T. Radjabov
A. Grischuk 1/2-1/2 V. Anand
V. Ivanchuk 1-0 L. Aronian
Wang Yue 1/2-1/2 L. Dominguez


Standings after Round 12:

1 7.0 GM Alexander Grischuk RUS 2733

2-3 6.5 GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2779
GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2776

4-5 6.0 GM Levon Aronian ARM 2750
GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2791

6-7 5.5 GM Wang Yue CHN 2739
GM Teimour Radjabov AZE 2761

8 5.0 GM Leinier Dominguez CUB 2717


Round 13 Pairings for tomorrow, only 2 round to go!

Linares Round 12 Resuls

Round 12 results from today's games at Linares 2009 Super GM tournament. GM Magnus Carlsen game GM Alexander Grischuk his first loss of the tournament, I will post that game after the round results.

Round 12 results:

GM Anand(2791) 1/2-1/2 GM Ivanchuk(2779)
GM Carlsen(2776) 1-0 GM Grischuk(2733)
GM Radjabov(2761) 1/2-1/2 GM Dominguez(2717)
GM Aronian(2750) 1/2-1/2 GM Wang-Yue(2739)

GM Magnus Carlsen vs GM Alexander Grischuk



A very nice game by GM Carlsen!