Carlsen is the latest toast in chess

Frank “Boy” Pestaño
Chessmoso

THE World Chess Federation has just released the latest statistics at the start of the year 2010.

The big story is that Magnus Carlsen is the highest-rated player, now with a rating of 2810, and he is only 19 years old!

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Wesley So, a spring chicken at 16, is No.77 in the world and is the highest-rated Filipino ever at 2656. He is also rated No.6 among players 20 years old and below.

A challenge for Wesley is to join the 2700 club and make it to the top 20 this year. He will have several opportunities. Coming up is the Corus tournament in the

Netherlands on Jan. 13 to Feb. 1 in Wijkaan Zee, where he topped Group C last year.

This time, So will play in the stronger Group B, where the average rating is 2630.

Wesley will also play in the Spice Cup 2010 in Texas, hosted by Susan Polgar. There is also the Olympiad in Khanty Mansiyk, Russia.

Another big event is the Asian Continental individual men’s and women’s championships on April 20 to 30 in Subic.

TOP 10. Magnus Carlsen (Norway, 19, 2810), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria, 34, 2805), Viswanathan Anand (India, 40, 2790), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia, 34, 2788), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 27, 2781), Boris Gelfand (Israel, 41, 2761), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan, 23, 2759), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, 40, 2749), Wang Yue (China, 22, 2749), Peter Svidler (Russia, 33, 2744).

TOP 10 WOMEN. Judit Polgar (Hungary, 33, 2682), Koneru Humpy (India, 22, 2614), Hou Yifan (China, 15, 2590), Antoanetta Stefanova (Bulgaria, 30, 2545), Nadezhda Kosintseva (Russia, 24, 2533), Pia Cramling (Sweden, 46, 2528), Anna Muzychuk (Slovenia, 19, 2523), Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia, 25, 2523), Katyrena Lahno (Ukraine, 20, 2518), Tatiana Kosintseva (Russia, 23, 2515).

TOP 10 JUNIORS. Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France, 19, 2730), Sergey Karjakin (Russia, 19, 2720), Fabiano Caruana (Italy, 17, 2675), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia, 19, 2658), Wesley, Le Quang Liem (Vietnam, 18, 2647), Dmitry Andreikin (Russia, 19, 2635), Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukraine, 19, 2634), Jon Ludwig Hammer (Norway, 19, 2627).

TOP PINOYS. Wesley So, Rogelio Antonio Jr. (2572), Darwin Laylo (2556), Rogelio Barcenilla (2518), John Paul Gomez (2507), Eugenio Torre (2506), Mark Paragua (2497), Joseph Sanchez (2490), Roland Salvador (2472), Julio Catalino Sadorra (2466), Ronald Dableo (2464), Richard Bitoon (2458), Oliver Barbosa (2452), Jayson Gonzales (2441), Buenaventura Villamayor (2438).

These are the top chess playing countries (average rating of top 10 players, number of grandmasters, international masters and total number of titled players).

Russia (2727, 196, 460, 1,932), Ukraine (2691, 73, 185, 420), Israel (2647, 34, 43, 145) China (2643, 27, 17, 99), Azerbaijan (2639, 17, 14, 61), USA (2635, 67, 114, 523), India (2635, 20, 61, 179), Hungary (2634, 42, 107, 385), France (2634, 49, 84, 312), Armenia (2632, 29, 20, 68). The Philippines is at no. 30 with 2524, 10, 25, 58.

EVENTS. The Sammy Galan Open will start tomorrow at 1 p.m. at the Barangay Apas Sports Complex.

There are three sections--Class B players (P75 registration), Kiddies (P50) and Women (P30). Time control is 40 minutes per player.

A big event going on now is the World Team Championship in Bursa, Turkey. It started last Jan. 5 and will end on Jan. 14.

The federations qualified to participate in the Championship are Continental Champions --Russia, Brazil, India (replacing China) and Egypt; the top three teams in the 2008 Chess Olympiad--Armenia, Israel and USA; two teams invited by the Fide president--Azerbaijan and Greece; and the host Turkey.

The organizers are providing all teams with full board and lodging and transport. In addition, the players will receive daily honorariums. Draw offers during the first 30 moves are not allowed.

(boypestano@chess.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com)