July 2012 FIDE Ratings
Since the last ELO list has been released Magnus Carlsen (2837, +2) got some breathing room after his win of the Tal Memorial. The lead is now 21 points as the Norwegian has inched closer to Garry Kasparov’s rating record of 2851. Levon Aronian (2816, -9) loss points after his subpar performance at the Tal Memorial, but comfortably ensconced in second place over Vladimir Kramnik (2799, -2) who dipped below 2800.
Viswanthan Anand retained his world crown, but continues to slide in the standings. Photo by Alexey Yushenkov.
Teimour Radjabov (2788, +4) inched ahead of World Champion Viswanathan Anand (2780, -11) who lost points from his 6-6 match result against Boris Gelfand (2738, +11). Anand won on tiebreaks, but the rapids are not figured in. Not much movement in the top 20 with 45 players over 2700… with perhaps a dozen former-2700s in tow.
In the women’s field, there has been some movement in the top although the live list gives a more accurate depiction. Since scoring a career-high 2639, Hou Yifan (2617, -6) dropped points from the Chinese Championship and the Thailand Open. Recently she has lost a cache of points from the Women’s FIDE Grand Prix at Kazan and Chinese League. Despite her struggles, Hou Yifan is more than 150 points ahead of Mariya Muzychuk (2456) on the top girls’ list.
Is Hou Yifan playing too much?
Photo by Anastasiya Karlovich for FIDE.
Since her sizzling performances at Gibraltar and Reykjavik, Hou Yifan has been criticized for playing too frequently. On the live list, Hou Yifan is now at 2600 and Anna Muzychuk, (2606, +8) has inched ahead of her. Humpy Koneru (2598, +9) has rebounded with a win at the Women’s Grand Prix and is closing in on 2600 once again. (see chesspro.ru for live ratings)
Nineteen-year old Fabiano Caruana (2775, +5) has bolstered his lead on the junior list with a strong performance in the Tal Memorial. Anish Giri (2696, +3) has struggled as of late, but is looking to get back into stride. Perhaps one of the hottest young players in the world is China’s Ding Liren (2680, +1), who has won the national championship three times straight and is fast approaching 2700. At 19, his improvement has been steady. China now has seven players in the top 100. Another Chinese junior Yu Yangyi (2656, +30) is the latest to join the top 100 list.
(Note: One of the most noticeable changes is that FIDE has begun to carry both rapid and blitz ratings.)