The Hindu : Sport/Chess : Anand regains World No. 2 spot

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 04, 2004

Sport

Sport - Chess

Anand regains World No. 2 spot

KOZHIKODE, APRIL 3. As expected Viswanathan Anand has regained the World No. 2 spot, as FIDE, the world chess governing body, announced the latest rating list on Saturday. He has taken his tally of Elo points to 2774, an increase of eight points from the January list.

Anand replaces Russia's Vladimir Krmanik (2764) in the second place. Another Russian, Garry Kasparov, continues to be the No. 1 with 2817 points, while Kramnik is ranked third.

There's more good news for India in the rating list, with teenaged prodigy Koneru Humpy (2513) moving to the No. 3 spot among women, behind Hungarian Judit Polgar (2728) and Xie Jun (2564) of China. Polgar, who has been the undisputed No.1 since 1989 though she doesn't play in women's tournaments, is also ranked ninth among men.

Among countries, India is ranked 13th (based on the average rating of the top ten players of each country) with an average rating of 2575. Russia (2721), Ukraine (2625) and England (2614) are the World's top three nations.

Krishnan Sasikiran (2659) is ranked 39th among men, while annother Chennaite, S. Vijayalakshmi (2438) is placed 28th among women.

Humpy is also the World No. 1 in the junior girls' list, while Pendyala Harikrishna (2599) is ranked ninth among junior boys. Yet another youngster from Andhra, Dronavalli Harika (2368) is placed 15th among junior girls.

The rankings:

Men: 1. Garry Kasparov (Rus) 2817, 2. Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 2774, 3. Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) 2764, 4. Peter Leko (Hun) 2741, 5. Veselin Topalov (Bul) 2737, 6. Peter Svidler (Rus) 2733, 7. Alexander Morozevich (Rus) 2732, 8.Michael Adams (Eng) 2731, 9. Judit Polgar (Hun) 2728, 10. Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) 2722.

Women: 1. Judit Polgar (Hun) 2728, 2. Xie Jun (Chn) 2564, 3. Koneru Humpy (Ind) 2513, 4. Maia Chiburdanidze (Geo) 2502,5. Alisa Galliamova (Rus) 2502, 6. Svetlana Matveeva (Rus) 2496, 7. Kateryna Lahno (Ukr) 2493, 8. Zhu Chen (Chn) 2493, Pia Cramling (Swe) 2491, 10. Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul) 2490.

Indian top ten: 1. Viswanathan Anand (2774), 2. Krishnan Sasikiran (2659), 3. Pendyala Harikrishna (2599), 4. Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2582), 5. Sandipan Chanda (2561), 6. Dibyendu Barua (2539), 7. Abhijt Kunte (2532), 8. Koneru Humpy (2513), 9. Tejas Bakre (2497), 10. R.B. Ramesh (2493).

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport