April 2008 FIDE rating list released!
The latest rating list is out. Viswanathan Anand is on top… where he belongs. Magnus Carlsen has soared up to #5. Two more Chinese over 2700. ❗ I’ll let you comment on the top 50. Hikaru Nakamura is up to 2686! Future women’s champion Hou Yifan is on 2549.
| Rank | Name | Title | Country | Rating | Games | B-Year |
| 1 | Anand, Viswanathan | g | IND | 2803 | 27 | 1969 |
| 2 | Kramnik, Vladimir | g | RUS | 2788 | 13 | 1975 |
| 3 | Morozevich, Alexander | g | RUS | 2774 | 11 | 1977 |
| 4 | Topalov, Veselin | g | BUL | 2767 | 27 | 1975 |
| 5 | Carlsen, Magnus | g | NOR | 2765 | 27 | 1990 |
| 6 | Aronian, Levon | g | ARM | 2763 | 27 | 1982 |
| 7 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | g | AZE | 2752 | 13 | 1985 |
| 8 | Radjabov, Teimour | g | AZE | 2751 | 27 | 1987 |
| 9 | Svidler, Peter | g | RUS | 2746 | 11 | 1976 |
| 10 | Leko, Peter | g | HUN | 2741 | 27 | 1979 |
| 11 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | g | UKR | 2740 | 35 | 1969 |
| 12 | Shirov, Alexei | g | ESP | 2740 | 14 | 1972 |
| 13 | Karjakin, Sergey | g | UKR | 2732 | 0 | 1990 |
| 14 | Adams, Michael | g | ENG | 2729 | 13 | 1971 |
| 15 | Kamsky, Gata | g | USA | 2726 | 0 | 1974 |
| 16 | Gelfand, Boris | g | ISR | 2723 | 13 | 1968 |
| 17 | Ponomariov, Ruslan | g | UKR | 2719 | 0 | 1983 |
| 18 | Grischuk, Alexander | g | RUS | 2716 | 11 | 1983 |
| 19 | Jakovenko, Dmitry | g | RUS | 2711 | 11 | 1983 |
| 20 | Alekseev, Evgeny | g | RUS | 2711 | 0 | 1985 |
| 21 | Polgar, Judit | g | HUN | 2709 | 13 | 1976 |
| 22 | Bu, Xiangzhi | g | CHN | 2708 | 16 | 1985 |
| 23 | Bacrot, Etienne | g | FRA | 2705 | 13 | 1983 |
| 24 | Ni, Hua | g | CHN | 2703 | 28 | 1983 |
| 25 | Movsesian, Sergei | g | SVK | 2695 | 29 | 1978 |
| 26 | Dominguez Perez, Lenier | g | CUB | 2695 | 15 | 1983 |
| 27 | Cheparinov, Ivan | g | BUL | 2695 | 13 | 1986 |
| 28 | Rublevsky, Sergei | g | RUS | 2695 | 0 | 1974 |
| 29 | Sokolov, Ivan | g | NED | 2690 | 1 | 1968 |
| 30 | Milov, Vadim | g | SUI | 2690 | 0 | 1972 |
| 31 | Wang, Yue | g | CHN | 2689 | 33 | 1987 |
| 32 | Malakhov, Vladimir | g | RUS | 2689 | 5 | 1980 |
| 33 | Eljanov, Pavel | g | UKR | 2687 | 13 | 1983 |
| 34 | Nakamura, Hikaru | g | USA | 2686 | 17 | 1987 |
| 35 | Wang, Hao | g | CHN | 2684 | 25 | 1989 |
| 36 | Inarkiev, Ernesto | g | RUS | 2684 | 20 | 1985 |
| 37 | Volokitin, Andrei | g | UKR | 2684 | 16 | 1986 |
| 38 | Vallejo Pons, Francisco | g | ESP | 2684 | 7 | 1982 |
| 39 | Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | g | ROU | 2684 | 0 | 1976 |
| 40 | Kasimdzhanov, Rustam | g | UZB | 2681 | 0 | 1979 |
| 41 | Harikrishna, P. | g | IND | 2679 | 30 | 1986 |
| 42 | Gashimov, Vugar | g | AZE | 2679 | 18 | 1986 |
| 43 | Sasikiran, Krishnan | g | IND | 2679 | 5 | 1981 |
| 44 | Bareev, Evgeny | g | RUS | 2677 | 0 | 1966 |
| 45 | Van Wely, Loek | g | NED | 2676 | 15 | 1972 |
| 46 | Nikolic, Predrag | g | BIH | 2674 | 17 | 1960 |
| 47 | Almasi, Zoltan | g | HUN | 2674 | 9 | 1976 |
| 48 | Zvjaginsev, Vadim | g | RUS | 2674 | 9 | 1976 |
| 49 | Akopian, Vladimir | g | ARM | 2673 | 17 | 1971 |
| 50 | Navara, David | g | CZE | 2672 | 9 | 1985 |
how far will magnus go before he hits a wall he seems to show no signs of slowing down. and will this be the year that nakamura gets his crack at the world elite?
Well… Magnus Carlsen is on a nice ride, but he’ll soon hit his height. As I said in other blogs, he has gotten the benefit of numerous invitations. Of course, he will not continue to go up. I’m more interested in when the Chinese will dominate chess. They have four young players in the top 40… only Russia can make that claim. I’m waiting for chess to take a turn from dominance of Europe and into other regions. People have been sleeping on them. I have been on blogs in the past debating this issue. I believe people realize that they are really strong.
Wang Hao vs. GN Gopal at the 2007 World Junior Championship
Wang Hao is still improving and the quiet Ni Hua has tip-toed into the elite class. The Indians have not improved their super-GM status over the past few years and have the same Anand-Harikrishna-Sasikiran trio, but they are in the cadre of elite federations. They got a couple young GMs coming up like G.N. Gopal, Abhijeet Gupta and S. Arun Prasad… not to mention Parimarjan Negi. IMHO, Miss Humpy won’t get much better.
Hikaru Nakamura is going to break 2700, but he doesn’t get the invitations to challenge in the world elite. Given that Loek van Wely gets to play in these elite tournaments every single year with mediocre results, it’s time to get some new blood. I had asked how many games can we stand of the same 20 players in Corus, Linares, Amber? Well… the chess is good, but we are missing so many good stories. Don’t sleep on Vietnam!
i agree i think the chinese are on their way to the top. nakamura is a storm!! i think the loek van wely in corus is stupid! so many other up and coming players could fill that spot and make the tourney much better! i am confused as to why nakamura declined his cours invite?!
carlsen had to work his way into that group, does he think that he can just get in based on rating or chance? perhaps naka should make his own luck or chances. whenever he does get a crack at the top he will give it all he has and we will see what naka can truly do.
Nakamura declined because of the conditions they offered. He said they were insulting, so he played in Gilbraltar (I think). I will have to find the posts on the Daily Dirt, but it was the subject of a big debate.
yeah im sure it had to be something like that because nakamura does not shy away from invites like corus,he is a fighter!, i hope they smarten up next year