World championships; top players and a puzzle

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

The World Chess Federation (Fide) has released its latest list of the top players in the world. The list includes the top women and top juniors as well as the top 10 federation members. The big story is that Mark Paragua is now officially a Grandmaster after a controversial wait of almost a year.

Top 10 Men. 1. Vishwanathan Anand (India, ELO 2788) 2.Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria, 2782) 3.Peter Leko (Hungary, 2751) 4.Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 2748) 4.Peter Svidler (Russia, 2740) 5.Vladimir Kramnick (Russia, 2739) 6.Judit Polgar (Hungary, 2735) 7.Etienne Bacrot (France, 2725) 8.Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2724) 9.Alexander Grischuk (Russia, 2720) 10.Michael Adams (England, 2718).

The “young lions” continued their climb to the top as Teimour Radjadov of Azerbaijan makes it above 2700 for the first time. Shakhriyaz Mamedyarov also of Azerbaijan gained 42 points and Pentala Harikrishna of India gained 28 points to place 28th and 31st respectively in the top 100. Another big gainer with 41 points is 21-yr-old Zviad Izoria of Georgia who won the World Open in Minneapolis early this year.

Top Women. 1.Judit Polgar (Hungary, 2735) 2.Zsuzsa Polgar (USA, 2577) 3.Jun Xie (China, 2573) 4.Humpy Koneru (India, 2540) 5.Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia, 2516) 6.Maia Chiburdanidze (Georgia, 2511) 7.Kateryna Lahno (Ukraine, 2509) 8.Yuhua Xu (China, 2502) 9.Antoaneta Stefanova, (Bulgaria, 2494) 10.Pia Cramling (Sweden, 2492)

Top Juniors. 1.Teimur Radjabov, (Azerian, 2704) 2.Shakhiyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan, 2764) 3.P Harikrishna (India, 2673) 4.Andrei Volokitin (Ukraine, 2666) 5.Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2662) 6.Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine, 2658) 7.Artyom Timofeev (Russia, 2658) 8.Alexander Areshchenko (Ukraine, 2653) 9.David Navara, (Czechoslovakia, 2646) 10.Arkadij Naiditsch, (Germany, 2641)

Top Federations. 1.Russia, 2710 156/417 2.Ukraine, 2662 52/168 3.USA, 2622 60/97 4.Hungary, 2620 36/99 5.Armenia, 2619 17/22 6.France, 2619 29/67 7.Israel, 2617 33/40 8.Netherlands, 2606 18/55 9.Germany, 2603 61/186 10.China, 2601 18/22. 39. Philippines , 2489 5/21.

The ELO rating is the average of its top 10 players while the two numbers following that is their number of GMs and IMs. .
Top 10 Philippines. 1.Mark Paraqua 2596 2.Eugenio Torre 2535 3.Rogelio Antonio Jr. 2526 4.Rogelio Barcenilla 2503 5. Nelson Mariano 2466 6. Jayson Gonzales, 2464 7. Idelfonso Datu 2457 8. Yves Ranola 2455 9. Buenaventura Villamayor 2451 10. Enrique Paciencia 2441.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. In what is perhaps his greatest accomplishment ever, Veselin Topalov is on a run never seen in a major tournament in decades. He scored five wins and a draw in six games for a staggering performance rating of 3157. He has wins with the black pieces over Peter Leko, Alexander Morozevich, Peter Svidler and Judit Polgar. He also demolished Michael Adams and was winning over Vishy Anand before Anand escaped with a draw.

He probably needs only to draw his remaining games to become the undisputed champion of the world. Although I picked him at the start to win over the highly favored Anand and the rest, I never expected this kind of performance, really. He is leading his closest pursuers, Anand and Svidler, by two full points.

The World Championship is played in San Luis, Argentina from Sept. 27- Oct. 16.

Chess puzzle. Chess puzzles are fun and helps improve your game It is also rewarding as my sponsor, the Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Group of Globe Telecom, thru its Vis-min Head Jerome M. Yntig, is donating P100 prepaid cards to each correct answer. There will be five winners which will be published next Friday. The cards will be raffled if there are more than five correct answers. Also, as we will be coming out with a new puzzle every week, a winner can only win once a month.

Please take note that only Globe users can participate and win the prize. Text the key move to cell no. 0915-507-0286.