The world’s top players; Cepca July tournament

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

The World Chess Federation has released its top-players list as of July 2005.

Tied for first are Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov, who caught up with the former with his wins at Linares and Sofia, both major tournaments.

Michael Adams has dropped out of the top 10 and was replaced by Levon Aronian. Vladimir Kramnik slid down to fifth, while Svidler is now ranked sixth.

Judit Polgar has maintained her position in the top 10 and is the top woman player followed by her sister, Susan.

The world’s top players are 1-2. Anand, Viswanathan (India) 2788; Topalov, Veselin (Bulgaria) 2788 3. Leko, Peter (Hungary) 2763 4. Ivanchuk, Vassily (Ukraine) 2752 5. Kramnik, Vladimir (Russia) 2744 6. Svidler, Peter (Russia) 2738 7. Polgar, Judit (Hungary) 2735 8. Bacrot, Etienne (France) 2729 9.

Aronian, Levon (Armeni) 2724 10. Gelfand, Boris (Israel) 2724
TOP WOMEN PLAYERS. 1. Polgar, Judit (Hungary) 2735 2. Polgar, Susan (USA) 2577 3. Xie, Jun (China) 2573 4. Koneru, Humpy (India) 2531 5. Kosteniuk, Alexandra (Russia) 2516 6. Chiburda-nidze, Maia (Georgia) 2509 7. Stefanova, Antoaneta (Bulgaria) 2501 8. Lahno, Kateryna (Ukraine) 2498 9. Cramling, Pia (Sweden) 2494 10. Kosintseva, Nadezhda (Russia) 2490.

TOP JUNIORS. (18-Under) 1. Radjabov, Teimour (Azerbaijan) 2682 2.Volokitin, Andrei (Ukraine) 2671 3. Navara, David (Czechoslovakia) 2663 4. Timofeev, Artyom (Russia) 2661 5. Nakamura, Hikaru (USA) 2660 6. Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (Azerbaijan) 2646 7. Karjakin, Serjey (Ukraine) 2645 8.
Harikrishna, P. (India) 2645 9. Efimenko, Zahar (Ukraine) 2643, 10.
Cheparinov, Ivan (Bulgaria) 2634.

TOP GIRLS. (18-U) 1. Koneru, Humpy (India) 2531 2. Lahno, Kateryna (Ukraine) 2490 3. Kosintseva, Nadezhda (Russia) 2490 4. Kosintseva, Tatiana (Russia) 2477 5. Zhao Xue (China) 2470 6. Sebaq, Marie (France) 2438 7.

Draqnidze, Nana (Georgia) 2438 8. Paehtz, Elizabeth (Germany) 2421 9.

Poqonina, Natalija (Russia) 2413 10. Korbut, Ekaterina (Russia) 2409.

In this list are the top chess playing countries. The rating represents the average Elo of the country’s top 10 players, followed by its number of grandmasters and international masters. 1. Russia 2713, GM 150, IM 415, 2.

Ukraine 2657, GM 50, IM 167 3. USA 2623, GM 60, IM 96 4. Hungary 2621, GM 36, IM 97 5. France 2620, GM 27, IM 68 6. Israel 2620, GM 33, IM 38 7. Armenia 2618, GM 17, IM 22 8. China 2604, GM 18, IM 12 9. England 2604, GM 33, IM 49 10. Germany 2602, GM 60, IM 174 38. Philippines 2492, GM 4, IM 22.

It was announced during the Filway Open held here in Cebu last May that Mark Paragua has made it as GM. In this list by Fide, however, he is still an IM. Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine, who got his final GM norms in Alushta, the same as Mark, is also listed as an IM. This means that Fide has not officially recognized the Alushta tournaments and Mark is not a grandmaster.

The top 10 Filipino players are 1. Paragua, Mark (IM) 2596 2. Torre, Eugenio (GM) 2535 3. Antonio, Rogelio Jr. (GM) 2513 4. Barcenilla, Rogelio (IM) 2507 5. Gonzales, Jayson (IM) 2477 6. Mariano, Nelson (GM) 2466 7. Ranola, Yves(IM) 2466 8. Datu, Idelfonso (IM) 2457 9. Sanchez Joseph (IM) 2452 10. Villamayor Buenaventura (GM) 2451.

PLAYERS TO WATCH. For the first time, Fide has included the 16-U, 14-U, 12-U and 10-U rankings for both Boys and Girls divisions. It is interesting to note that Russia, India and China are well represented in these categories. Our Wesley So should be included in the list below as he is already a Fide master and therefore has a rating of around 2300. I think that he is not yet 12-years-old.

Top Boys (12-U) 1. Negi, Parimarjan (India) 2376 2. Sjugirov, Sanan (Russia) 2358 3. Zeng, Chongsheng (China) 2306 4. Belous, Vladimir (Russia) 2218 5. Abasov Nijat, Azad (Azerbaijan) 2210 6. Lalith, Babu M.R. (India) 2209 7.
Sethuraman, S.P. (India) 2203 8. Sadykov, Ramil (Russia) 2198 9. Strzemiecki, Zbigniew (Poland) 2195 10. Zherebukh, Yaroslav (Ukraine) 2182.

Top Girls (12-U) 1. Myat Thiri, Aung Kyaw (Myanmar) 2208 2. Hou, Yifan (China) 2158 3. Kalmykova, Anastasia (Russia) 2138 4. Chaitanya, V. (India) 2127 5. Tejaswini, Reddy S. (India) 2118 6. Paikidze, Nazi (Georgia) 2083 7.Kashlinskkaya, Alina (Russia) 2075 8.) Bulmaga, Irina (Moldava) 2074 9. Suslova, Alena (Russia) 2061 10. Fastova, Tatiana (Russia) 2058.

For a complete list of players under all categories log on to www.fide.com.

CEPCA JULY TOURNAMENT. The Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association (Cepca) July Handicapping Tournament will be held this Sunday, 2 p.m. at the Stella Maris Seafarer Center at Pier 4. Format is five-round Swiss with time controls depending on playing strength. New members are welcome to take part.