FIDE ratings: Carlsen returns to the top

Proud father Anand, whose son turns three (months, that is) next week, has not played any rated games since the March list, while Magnus Carlsen had another wonderful tournament in Medias, Romania, where he scored 6.5/10 and gained five points. With rounding this placed him four points ahead of the World Champion. In Medias another former boy prodigy, Sergey Karjakin, who is nine months older than Magnus, had an equal score but gained twelve points to jump to place four on the list, behind Armenian GM Levon Aronian.

Here is Magnus Carlsen's rating progress over the years:

FIDE July 1st 2011 – Top 100 Players

Top gains by players

Top losses by players

FIDE Top 100 Women July 2011

Judit remains as always in the lead, but like Bob Beamon her record for the highest ever rated female player by a huge margin will eventually be broken, and the candidates to do it are piled up behind her. Hotteste contender is Koneru Humpy of India, who is now just 85 points behind the Hungarian. Hou Yifan, who was 2612 on the previous list, just two points behind Humpy, has lost a whopping 37 points, and stands to lose 12 more after a poor 3.0/10 result in the AAI GM in New Delhi, urgently needs a fresh charge for her batteries. We hope this incredibly talented and very charming seventeen-year-old will quickly overcome the slump and climb over the 2600 mark, where she definitely belongs.

FIDE Top 20 Juniors July 2011

The big news here is of course Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem, whose 28-point jump has put him in first place, ahead of Italian-American Fabiano Caruana, who has occupied it for a long time now. Anish Giri has crossed the 2700 mark for the first time and is the youngest of the three.

FIDE Top 20 Girls July 2011

In spite of all the losses Yifan easily retainst her top ranking amongst the juniors. Note that she is also one of the youngest on the list. Harika has slipped slightly and switched places with Chinese junior Ju Wenjun.

Lists and data by courtesy of FIDE