I have just been looking at the latest Fide rating list which was released by the World Chess Federation late last month and the first thing that struck me was that the K's of chess are still dominating the world rankings.
But surprise, surprise! It is neither Gary Kasparov nor Anatoly Karpov who are at the top of the heap. It is also not Gata Kamsky, who is scheduled to play a world championship match with Karpov later in the year.
Instead, the top honours belong to 20-year-old Vladimir Kramnik who has a rating of 2775, an increase of 45 points over last year's July rating list.
Actually, Kramnik and Kasparov have the same rating points but Kramnik's rating was calculated over 42 games whereas Kasparov's came from only 19 games.
Obviously, Fide had placed Kramnik higher than Kasparov because of the greater number of games that the former had played. This is the same criterion used by Fide throughout the list to rank players with the same rating points. The more active player is always ranked higher.
Kasparov's rating dipped to 2775 from last July's 2795. Karpov is in third position with 2770 as his rating, down from 2775 six months ago.
Also in this list, there are five other players with ratings of at least 2700. Two players - Vassily Ivanchuk and Kamsky - are rated at 2735, Viswanathan Anand is next at 2725, and both Veselin Topalov and Boris Gelfand are at 2700. The 20-year-old Topalov from Bulgaria had the biggest increase in rating points, up from 2640 in July 1995.
Below this elite group are 57 players with ratings of at least 2600. Some of the more prominent names in the 2600-2695 group are Alexei Shirov 2690, Judit Polgar 2675, Valery Salov 2670, Nigel Short 2665 and Viktor Korchnoi 2645.
Judit Polgar holds a record of sorts. Not only is she within the top 10 players in the world, but she is also ranked first among the top 20 junior players. Judit is also the highest ranked in the Fide women's rating list.
The reigning world champion, Xie Jun, is only ranked third, at 2530, among the women. She is behind Judit's eldest sister, Zsuzsa Polgar, who has a 2550 rating. And both Xie and Zsuzsa are going to play for the women's world championship title soon.
Among the highly rated women is Pia Cramling of Sweden. Cramling, with a rating of 2525, has always been among the top women players. Like Judit, Cramling used to play in open tournaments against male opposition in the early part of her chess career and this had benefited her game a lot.
Maya Chiburdanidze and Nona Gaprindashvili, two former women's world champions, are rated at 2515 and 2380. These six are the only women players ever awarded the men's grandmaster (GM) title by the World Chess Federation. The strength of the woman's grandmaster title (WGM) is perhaps equivalent to only that of the men's international master title.
Among the juniors, Zoltan Almasi (2650) is next in line after Judit Polgar and he is followed by Peter Svidler (2630). Both Peter Leko and Alexander Morozevich are rated at 2625 each. Vietnam's Dao Thien Hai is ranked eighth in the junior list with a 2560 rating.
Malaysians also feature in the rating list but our players are still a long way down the pecking order. Peter Long (2350) and Jimmy Liew (2335) remain our highest rated players although both have not appeared in an international tournament for a long time.
Below them, we have the current national champion, Mas Hafizul, who is rated at 2290 and after that is another inactive player, Eric Cheah, at 2255.
The rest of the Malaysians in the Fide list are: Mohd Fadli Zakaria (2250), Lim Yee Weng (2240), Mok Tze Meng (2240), Goh Yoon Wah (2230), Mohd Fairin Zakaria (2220), Mohd Irman Ibrahim (2220), Ng Ee Vern (2220), Ooi Chern Ee (2220), Mohd Kamal Abdullah (2205), Ng Ek Teong (2200), Sabar Md Hashim (2195), Yeoh Chin Seng (2195), Ahmad Muzzafar (2185), Mohd Saprin Sabri (2150), Tan Hong Ghee (2150), Wong Zi Jing (2130), Azahari Md Nor (2110), Thomas Lam (2105), Julian Navaratnam (2090), Ismail Ahmad (2070), Lim Tse Pin (2070), Audrey Wong (2070), Eliza Hanim Ibrahim (2050), Eliza Hanum Ibrahim (2050), Nurul Huda Wahiduddin (2040) and Mohan Raj (2025).
ST JOHN'S TEAM TOURNAMENT
The St John's Institution in Kuala Lumpur will organise its seventh annual team championship on Feb 3 and 4. This event is open to all school teams in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, and will be played according to Rapid-30 chess rules.
Each team shall comprise five players, inclusive of a reserve. Students presently waiting for their examination results are allowed to turn out for their schools but they must be in their school uniforms.
Teams interested in taking part in this event, sponsored by Pure products, can register at the SJI by 8.30am on March 25. Entry fee is RM25 per team and trophies will be awarded to the best five teams. The best girl team shall also receive a trophy.
For more information, contact Lim Teik Hun or Wong Nai Chien.
WEEKEND CHESS
The Sek Ren Jenis Kebangsaan (China) Kepong in Kuala Lumpur will be the venue for a one-day junior open tournament this Sunday.
This event, organised by Total Chess, is divided into three sections - under-10, under-12 and under-16 - and prizes will be given away for each section.
The six-round event starts at 9.30am and participants are required to register either with Joseph Toh of Total Chess (tel: 03-757-4606) or be at the school by 9am on the tournament day. Entry fee is RM6 for students of the school and RM9 for others.
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