Topalov retains world No. 1 ranking

By Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

THE World Chess Federation has released the world’s top players and surprisingly the No.1 player is still Veselin Topalov despite losing 30 points in his unification match against Vladimir Kramnik and a low performance in the Essent Tournament.

Viswanathan Anand is now only four points behind, while Kramnik is just 17 points behind Topalov.

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Mamedyarov gained a massive 26 points to move to fourth, while Svidler lost 22 points to drop out of the Top 10. Judit Polgar is, as usual, the top female player and is No 13 in the world, increasing by 17 points. She is followed by Koneru Humpy of India, the Asian Games gold medal winner.

MEN’S Top 10. 1.) Veselin Topalov, 31, Bulgaria (2783) 2. Viswanathan Anand, 37, India (2779) 3. Vladimir Kramnik, 31, Russia (2766) 4. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 21, Azerbaijan (2754) 5. Vassily Ivanchuk, 37 (2750) 6. Peter Leko, 27, Hungary 27 (2749) 7. Levon Aronian, 24, Armenia (2744) 8. Alexander Morozevich, 29 (Russia) 2741 9. Michael Adams, 35, England (2735) 10. Boris Gelfand, 38, Israel (2733).

Outside the Top 10, Ruslan Ponomariov, a former Fide Champion, rose to No. 14 from No. 20, having gained 20 points and Krishnan Sasikiran of India improved by 25 points to 2700 with his gold medal performance in the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar.

WOMEN’S Top 10 1.) Judit Polgar, 30, Hungary (2727) 2.) Humpy Koneru 19, India, (2567) 3.) Pia Cramling, 43, Sweden (2530) 4.) Chen Zhu, 30, Qatar (2518) 5.) Yu Hua Xu, 30 China (2517) 6.) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 22, Russia (2515) 7.) Maia Chiburdanidze, 45, Georgia (2510) 8.) Yifan Hou Chn, 12, 2509 (2509) 9.) Nadezhda Kosintseva, 21, Russia (2496) 10.) Antoaneta Stefanova Bulgaria (2446).

JUNIORS’ Top 10 1.) Teimour Radjabov, 19, Azerbaijan (2729) 2.) Magnus Carlse, 16, Norway (2690) 3.) Sergey Karjakin, 16, (2678) 4.) Hikaru Naskamura, 19, USA (2651) 5.) Yue Wang, 19, China (2644) 6.) Radoslaw Wojttaszek, 19, Poland (2637) 7.) Evgeny Tomashevsky, 19, Russia (2624) 8.) Hao Wang, 17, China (2619) 10.) Csaba Balogh, 19, Hungary (2616).

GIRLS’ Top 10 1.) Humpy Koneru, 19, India (2567) 2.) Yifan Hou, 12, China (2509) 3.) Anna Muzychuk, 16, Slovakia (2475) 4.) Nana Dzagnidze, 19, Georgia (2463) 5.) Katyrena Lahno, 17, Ukraine (2456) 6.) Yang Shen, 17, China (2446) 7.) Elena Tairova, 15, Russia (2427) 8.) Dronavalli Harika, 15, India (2421) 9.) Salome Melia, 19, Georgia (2400) 10.) Bathuyag Mongontuul, 19, Mongolia (2397).

PHILIPPINES’ Top 10 1.) Mark Paragua, 22 (2573) 2.) Rogelio Antonio, 44 (2551) 3.) Eugenio Torre, 55 (2547) 4.) Rogelio Barcenilla, 2503 5.) Joseph Sanchez, 36 (2482) 6.) Oliver Dimakiling, 26, (2481) 7.) Darwin Laylo, 26 (2476) 8.) Jayson Gonzales (2458) 9.) Ildefonso Datu, 34 (2457) 10.) John Paul Gomez (2455).

TOP 10 COUNTRIES. The first number shows the average Elo rating of their top 10 players, the second number indicates their number of grandmasters, the third their total number of IMs and the fourth number shows the total number of titled players, men and women.1.) Russia (2713, 158, 437 1661) 2.) Ukraine (2661, 57, 170, 339) 3.) USA (2627, 60, 102, 463) 4.) Armenia (2627, 19, 21, 58) 5.) Hungary (2623, 37, 102, 345) 6.) Israel (2623, 33, 40, 132) 7.) China (2617, 19, 12, 82) 8.) France (2615, 29, 71, 254) 9.) Georgia (2609, 22, 28, 90) 10.) Poland (2608, 24, 79, 253) The Philippines is at 37th (2498, 5, 24, 43).

According to the newly elected president of the Cebu Executives and Professionals Chess Association Inc.(Cepca) Emmanuel “Mat” Matuco, this year is a “make or break” year for the club as there will be some fundamental changes in the membership structure and primary objectives.

The club is now open to everybody and members will be classified as regular or associate. In effect, the club will now be divided into three separate Groups—Class A,B and C and Kiddies and there will be three separate tournaments.

Those who belong in Class A, which will include all the best players, cannot join the B/ C tournaments and the kiddies will now have a separate tournament of their own.