Top players move closer together

Red is the April rating, the blue columns are those of the previous list

The big winners in the top ten of the April 2003 rating list are Anand with +11, Leko +10, Shirov +12 and Judit Polgar +15. Garry Kasparov lost 17 points and Kramnik 18, but both maintained their Nr. 1 and 2 rankings. Anand is now 25 points behind Kramnik. Judit Polgar is once again in the top ten, the only women ever to have come close to achieving this lofty status.

Here are the win-loss statistics for the first 20 players, starting with their rankings in April and January 2003:

   1   1  Kasparov, Garry      2830 (-17)
   2   2  Kramnik, Vladimir    2789 (-20)
   3   3  Anand, Viswanathan   2764 (+11)
   4   5  Leko, Peter          2746 (+10)
   5   9  Shirov, Alexei       2735 (+12)
   6   4  Topalov, Veselin     2735  (-8)
   7   8  Bareev, Evgeny       2734  (+5)
   8   6  Adams, Michael       2723 (-11)
   9   7  Ponomariov, Ruslan   2718 (-16)
  10  13  Polgar, Judit        2715 (+15)
  11  16  Svidler, Peter       2713 (+20)
  12  15  Ivanchuk, Vassily    2704  (+5)
  13  11  Akopian, Vladimir    2703   (0)
  14  12  Khalifman, Alexander 2702   (0)
  15  10  Grischuk, Alexander  2701 (-11)
  16  14  Gelfand, Boris       2700   (0)
  17  18  Dreev, Alexey        2695  (+5)
  18  17  Short, Nigel         2686  (-4)
  19  20  Karpov, Anatoly      2686  (-2)
  20  21  Ye, Jiangchuan       2684  (+2)

Looking at the top hundred (below) we see the really big winners are Peter Swidler with +20 (moving from place 16 to place 11), Sergey Rublevsky +26, Zhong Zhang +42 (!), Viktor Bologan +33, and Teimour Radjabov and Igor Khenkin each gaining +20; while the biggest losers are Michal Krasenkow with -24.

No. Name                              t  NAT  ja03 ap03 Gms
  1 Kasparov, Gary..................  g  RUS  2847 2830  12
  2 Kramnik, Vladimir...............  g  RUS  2807 2789  25
  3 Anand, Viswanathan..............  g  IND  2753 2764  25
  4 Leko, Peter.....................  g  HUN  2736 2746  12
  5 Shirov, Alexei..................  g  ESP  2723 2735  22
  6 Topalov, Veselin................  g  BUL  2743 2735  13
  7 Bareev, Evgeny..................  g  RUS  2729 2734  13
  8 Adams, Michael..................  g  ENG  2734 2723   9
  9 Ponomariov, Ruslan..............  g  UKR  2734 2718  25
 10 Polgar, Judit (GM) w ...........  g  HUN  2700 2715  13
 11 Svidler, Peter..................  g  RUS  2693 2713  29
 12 Ivanchuk, Vassily...............  g  UKR  2699 2704  13
 13 Akopian, Vladimir...............  g  ARM  2703 2703   0
 14 Khalifman, Alexander............  g  RUS  2702 2702   0
 15 Grischuk, Alexander.............  g  RUS  2712 2701  22
 16 Gelfand, Boris..................  g  ISR  2700 2700   0
 17 Dreev, Alexey...................  g  RUS  2690 2695   9
 18 Short, Nigel D..................  g  ENG  2690 2686  24
 19 Karpov, Anatoly.................  g  RUS  2688 2686  13
 20 Ye, Jiangchuan..................  g  CHN  2682 2684  11
 21 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam............  g  UZB  2676 2680   6
 22 Morozevich, Alexander...........  g  RUS  2678 2678   9
 23 Azmaiparashvili, Zurab..........  g  GEO  2678 2678   0
 24 Sokolov, Ivan...................  g  NED  2688 2677  24
 25 Almasi, Zoltan..................  g  HUN  2676 2676   0
 26 Van Wely, Loek..................  g  NED  2668 2675  22
 27 Malakhov, Vladimir..............  g  RUS  2677 2672   9
 28 Rublevsky, Sergei...............  g  RUS  2644 2670  19
 29 Zhang, Zhong....................  g  CHN  2624 2666  24
 30 Lautier, Joel...................  g  FRA  2670 2666   9
 31 Sakaev, Konstantin..............  g  RUS  2645 2664  18
 32 Zvjaginsev, Vadim...............  g  RUS  2671 2664   9
 33 Bologan, Viktor.................  g  MDA  2630 2663  24
 34 Smirin, Ilia....................  g  ISR  2664 2662  18
 35 Movsesian, Sergei...............  g  SVK  2663 2659  21
 36 Sasikiran, Krishnan.............  g  IND  2664 2658  38
 37 Bacrot, Etienne.................  g  FRA  2671 2654   9
 38 Vaganian, Rafael A..............  g  ARM  2667 2653   9
 39 Sutovsky, Emil..................  g  ISR  2651 2652  18
 40 Aleksandrov, Aleksej............  g  BLR  2633 2650  26
 41 Beliavsky, Alexander G..........  g  SLO  2649 2649   0
 42 Onischuk, Alexander.............  g  USA  2658 2647  16
 43 Georgiev, Kiril.................  g  MKD  2654 2647  10
 44 Piket, Jeroen...................  g  NED  2646 2646   0
 45 Vallejo Pons, Francisco.........  g  ESP  2629 2645  26
 46 Radjabov, Teimour...............  g  AZE  2624 2644  25
 47 Khenkin, Igor...................  g  GER  2624 2644  17
 48 Tkachiev, Vladislav.............  g  FRA  2642 2643  18
 49 Landa, Konstantin...............  g  RUS  2649 2643   9
 50 Nikolic, Predrag................  g  BIH  2638 2643   9
 51 Kaidanov, Gregory S.............  g  USA  2629 2640  18
 52 Lutz, Christopher...............  g  GER  2640 2640   0
 53 Kobalia, Mikhail................  g  RUS  2635 2639   9
 54 Lputian, Smbat G................  g  ARM  2638 2638   0
 55 Gurevich, Mikhail...............  g  BEL  2634 2635   9
 56 Macieja, Bartlomiej.............  g  POL  2629 2634  37
 57 Motylev, Alexander..............  g  RUS  2640 2634  20
 58 Volkov, Sergey..................  g  RUS  2624 2634   9
 59 Tregubov, Pavel V...............  g  RUS  2612 2632  28
 60 Korchnoi, Viktor................  g  SUI  2642 2632  26
 61 Lastin, Alexander...............  g  RUS  2636 2632   9
 62 Graf, Alexander.................  g  GER  2630 2630   0
 63 Epishin, Vladimir...............  g  RUS  2626 2628  37
 64 Xu, Jun.........................  g  CHN  2626 2628  19
 65 Granda Zuniga, Julio E..........  g  PER  2623 2628   9
 66 Moiseenko, Alexander............  g  UKR  2597 2627  25
 67 Filippov, Valerij...............  g  RUS  2616 2627  19
 68 Seirawan, Yasser................  g  USA  2636 2626   9
 69 Nielsen, Peter Heine............  g  DEN  2620 2625   9
 70 Huebner, Robert Dr..............  g  GER  2625 2625   0
 71 Sadler, Matthew.................  g  ENG  2624 2624   0
 72 Tiviakov, Sergei................  g  NED  2635 2623  32
 73 Pelletier, Yannick..............  g  SUI  2624 2623  16
 74 Fridman, Daniel.................  g  LAT  ---- 2621  41
 75 Smirnov, Pavel..................  m  RUS  2572 2615  33
 76 Vescovi, Giovanni...............  g  BRA  2592 2615  24
 77 Goldin, Alexander...............  g  USA  2621 2611  13
 78 Dautov, Rustem..................  g  GER  2604 2611   9
 79 Ftacnik, Lubomir................  g  SVK  2616 2611   1
 80 Nunn, John D.M..................  g  ENG  2611 2611   0
 81 Bruzon, Lazaro..................  g  CUB  2613 2610  12
 82 Dorfman, Josif D................  g  FRA  2610 2610   0
 83 Hansen, Curt....................  g  DEN  2610 2610   0
 84 Krasenkow, Michal...............  g  POL  2633 2609  22
 85 Hodgson, Julian M...............  g  ENG  2608 2608   0
 86 Baklan, Vladimir................  g  UKR  2605 2607  10
 87 Alekseev, Evgeny................  g  RUS  2614 2607   9
 88 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyaz........... g  AZE  2596 2607   9
 89 Korneev, Oleg...................  g  RUS  2613 2606  58
 90 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter.........  g  ROM  2592 2606  19
 91 Aronian, Levon..................  g  ARM  2610 2606   9
 92 Dolmatov, Sergey................  g  RUS  2591 2606   9
 93 Najer, Evgeniy..................  g  RUS  2585 2606   9
 94 Hamdouchi, Hichem...............  g  MAR  2615 2605  17
 95 Jussupow, Artur.................  g  GER  2592 2604  18
 96 Fedorov, Alexei.................  g  BLR  2579 2604   9
 97 Eingorn, Vereslav S.............  g  UKR  2604 2604   0
 98 Dominguez, Lenier...............  g  CUB  2602 2603  12
 99 Kozul, Zdenko...................  g  CRO  2587 2601  18
100 Acs, Peter......................  g  HUN  2623 2600  13
101 Kazhgaleyev, Murtas.............  g  KAZ  2604 2600   9