Anand Widens Rating Lead
By Arvind Aaron

World No.1 Viswanathan Anand has posted an increase in the July 2007 rating list thanks to his 3.5/4 score for Baden Baden in the German league. His lead over the No.2 ranked Vladimir Kramnik is now 23 Elo points. Anand added a cool six points from his four encounters. Anand also had helped Baden Baden retain their German team title. Anand occupied the No.1 place for the first time ever in April 2007 after FIDE decided to include the Linares Tournament results in April.

As far as the world top ten is concerned, Kramnik and Topalov inter-changed second-third places. Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine with some big wins at Cuba has moved into the world top ten once again. He takes the No.4 place and should move further ahead in the October list thanks to his win at Foros in Ukraine. The newcomer in the world top is Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia who has also been the most active player in the top. The two players to leave the top ten were Peter Svidler and Michael Adams.

India now has three players in the World Top 20 in women. Koneru Humpy retains the No.2 place behind Judit Polgar. Humpy lost three Elo from Dubai Open in April. Dronavalli Harika has added two Elo but slid by two places in the World Rank for women to No.15. S.Vijayalakshmi has added 39 Elo in her 42 games in the last quarter to reach World No.20. She is on 2464, still behind her all-time high of 2485 (Oct 2005). If India is lucky to get these three players for Dresden 2008, team medal will be certain.

Here is the top ten in men:

Rank Name Title Country Rating Games B-Year
1 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2792 4 1969
2 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2769 1 1975
3 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2768 10 1975
4 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2762 22 1969
5 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2758 18 1977
6 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2755 14 1985
7 Leko, Peter g HUN 2751 9 1979
8 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2750 15 1982
9 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2746 7 1987
10 Jakovenko, Dmitry g RUS 2735 29 1983

39 Krishnan Sasikiran 2674
46 P.Harikrishna 2664.

Women's top 20 with three Indians in it:

Rank Name Title Country Rating Games B-Year
1 Polgar, Judit g HUN 2707 10 1976
2 Koneru, Humpy g IND 2572 11 1987
3 Cramling, Pia g SWE 2533 3 1963
4 Hou, Yifan wg CHN 2523 25 1994
5 Zhu, Chen g QAT 2522 11 1976
6 Kosteniuk, Alexandra g RUS 2515 0 1984
7 Kosintseva, Tatiana m RUS 2502 20 1986
8 Ushenina, Anna m UKR 2502 17 1985
9 Zhao, Xue wg CHN 2500 17 1985
10 Chiburdanidze, Maia g GEO 2496 19 1961
11 Sebag, Marie m FRA 2491 20 1986
12 Stefanova, Antoaneta g BUL 2481 35 1979
13 Socko, Monika m POL 2479 40 1978
14 Krush, Irina m USA 2479 36 1983
15 Harika, Dronavalli m IND 2478 12 1991
16 Kosintseva, Nadezhda m RUS 2475 19 1985
17 Galliamova, Alisa m RUS 2468 9 1972
18 Cmilyte, Viktorija m LTU 2467 29 1983
19 Hoang Thanh Trang g HUN 2466 40 1980
20 Vijayalakshmi, Subbaraman m IND 2464 42 1979

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Published : 02  July , 2007