Carlsen still number one

The official World Chess Federation (FIDE) rating list has come out with Magnus Carlsen still officially number one, but when Linares is counted Topalov will be pushing him close.
Kramnik has moved up to third place ahead of Anand.

The FIDE rating lists come out every two months, so there are now six every year. The latest one came out yesterday on the 1st of March.

There is a lag of a couple of weeks, so the list reflects results of events up to mid-February.

Topalov gained points in his success in Linares and Grischuk also gained, but they will have to wait until the following list on the 1st of May, before they will appear officially in the ratings.

As you'll see below, Carlsen is officially number one (and is actually higher-rated than Kasparov's last active rating) but there is a long way to go to get above Kasparov's world record 2851.

In the top 21 there are six players (generally the younger ones) who have their career highest ratings at the present time.

At the bottom of the list, for comparative purposes, you can notice the addition of the two leading women players and the world's leading inactive player!

RankingNameCountryOfficial RatingLinares changeCareer HighestAge
1Magnus CarlsenNOR2813281319
2Veselin TopalovBUL2805+7281334
3Vladimir KramnikRUS2790281134
4Viswanathan AnandIND2787280340
5Levon AronianARM2782+1278627
6Shakhriyar MamedyarovAZE2760276024
7Alexander GrischukRUS2756+14275626
8Peter SvidlerRUS2750276533
9Boris GelfandISR2750-11276141
10Wang YueCHN2749274922
11Vassily IvanchukUKR2748278740
12Vugar GashimovAZE2740-10275923
13Teimour RadjabovAZE2740276122
14Alexei ShirovESP2737275537
15Ruslan PonomariovUKR2737274326
16Pavel EljanovUKR2736273626
17Hikaru NakamuraUSA2735273522
18Peter LekoHUN2735276330
19Maxime Vachier-LagraveFRA2727273019
20Dmitry JakovenkoRUS2725276026
21Sergey KarjakinRUS2725273220
51Judith PolgarHUN2682273533
141Humpy KoneruIND2622262322
Former no.1Garry KasparovRUSinactive 2812285146

If one were to take into account the Linares results then Topalov would still be behind Carlsen.

Grischuk would go up one place and raise his career highest rating.

Gelfand would lose 3 places and drop out of the top ten, whereas Gashimov would lose as many as 6 places.

There is still a couple of months for many ratings to change before the 1st of May!


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