Topalov leads Anand by a point

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

THE World Chess Federation has just released its top players as of April 2006 and the No. 1 spot belongs to World Champion Veselin Topalov with an Elo rating of 2,804, a mere one-point lead over Vishy Anand. The duo is almost 50 points ahead of current third placer Levon Aronian who won the “Ciudad de Linares” mega-tournament last month.

Judit Polgar is still the Women‘s no.1 although she has gone down to no.14 in the overall list after a bad showing in the World Championship in San Luis, Argentina where she finished last in a field of 8.The current Women’s Champion is Xu Yuhua of China.

For the first time in almost 25 years a Filipino is rated in the top 100. Mark Paragua is on the list at no. 99 with a rating of 2618. I can’t recall exactly when Eugene Torre placed among the top 10 in the world but it was in the late 70s or early 80s. Mark is only 22 years old and soon he will be up there with the elite.

TOP 10. 1. Topalov, Veselin (30) Bulgaria 2,804, 2. Anand, Viswanathan (36) India 2,803, 3. Aronian, Levon (23) Armenia 2,756, 4. Svidler, Peter (29) Russia 2,743, 5. Leko, Peter (26) Hungary 2,738, 6. Ponomariov, Ruslan (22) Ukraine 2,738, 7. Morozevich, Alexander (28) Russia 2,730, 8. Kramnik, Vladimir (30) Russia 2,729, 9. Gelfand, Boris (38) Israel 2,727, 10. Ivanchuk, Vassily (36) Ukraine 2,723.

TOP 10 WOMEN. 1. Polgar, Judit (30) Hungary 2,711, 2. Koneru, Humpy (18) India 2,548, 3. Kosteniuk, Alexandra (22) Russia 2,540, 4. Cramling, Pia (43) Sweden 2,520, 5. Xu, Yuhua (29) China 2,517, 6. Chiburdanidze, Maia (45) Georgia 2,504, 7. Stefanova, Antoaneta (26) Bulgaria 2,502, 8. Kosintseva, Tatiana (19) Russia 2,489, 9. Hoang Thanh Trang (25) Hungary 2,487, 10. Zhu, Chen (29) China 2,483.

TOP 10 COUNTRIES. 1. Russia - 1,588 titled players (ELO Ave. - 2,716), 2. Ukraine - 326 titled players, (2,663 ELO Ave.), 3. USA – 455 titled players (2,625), 4. France - 241 titled players (2,623), 5. America – 586 titled players (2,616), 6. Hungary – 338 titled players (2,616), 7. China - 81 titled players (2,611), 8. Israel – 132 titled players (2,609), 9. Germany - 954 titled players (2,607), 10. Netherlands 210 titled players (2,605).

This list gives you an idea on the playing strength of the countries concerned, for example, the top 10 players of Russia have an average Elo of 2716 and the country has 1588 titled players. The Philippines is ranked no.40 with an average Elo of 2489 and 42 titled players.

TOP 10 PHILIPPINES. 1. Paragua, Mark (22) 2,618, 2. Torre, Eugenio (54) 2,543, 3. Antonio, Rogelio, Jr. (43) 2,539, 4. Barcenilla, Rogelio 2,503, 5. Datu, Idelfonso (34) 2,457, 6. Mariano, Nelson (31) 2,454, 7. Dimakiling, Oliver 2,452, 8. Villamayor, Buenaventura 2,448, 9. Sanchez, Joseph (35) 2,446, 10. Gonzales, Jayson 2,434.

LOLOY MEMORIAL. The Marcelo “Loloy” Ruelan Memorial tournament is held every year in honor of the late Cebu Master who never faltered in his devotion to chess during his lifetime. This year`s edition will be held in Tisoy`s Sports Restobar along A.S. Fortuna St. in Mandaue tomorrow and Sunday. Among the sponsors are the Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association (Cepca) and Cepca`s James Bond Ely Berciles.

Format is 7-round Swiss Active. It looks like chess has a new home as Cepca‘s monthly tournament will also be held here on April 16.

CHESS CLOCK. Chessplayer Jun Sanchez came to visit me and introduced his son Boni, a new graduate of computer engineering from University of Cebu, who has a unique invention – a digital chess clock. As far as I know this is the first and only product locally available in the market. I was shown a sample and it has all the features of the imported ones, only cheaper.

In case you would like to order one, call Jun at T-261-0317.The clock is made using locally available materials, has a warranty and can easily be repaired by the inventor.

I’m calling on the officers of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines to take a good, hard look at this product.