Topalov leads in the January 2009 FIDE ratings

FIDE January 2009 Rating List

The January list includes tournaments up to 15 December 2008, and FIDE events such as the Grand Prix in Elista, which ended 28 December. Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov has stayed in first place with a rating just four points shy of 2800. He is five points higher than in the previous list, and he gained these five points at the Chess Olympiad in Dresden. The first place in the Nanjing Super-GM has not been counted, since that event ended on December 22nd.

In second place on the FIDE list we find World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who has gained eight points from his match in Bonn with Vladimir Kramnik. The latter lost eight points from the Anand match, and five more points at the Chess Olympiad. We find Kramnik at number eight, two places lower than on the previous list.

Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, who turns 40 on March 18, has 2779 points, seven fewer than in October, but retains his third rank. The 18-year-old Magnus Carlsen of Norway dropped ten points and is now at 2776, but he too retained his fourth place. Alexander Morozevich, who was second on the previous list, dropped to fifth place with 2771 points.

Next on the list we find two climbers, Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan with 2761 points and Dimitry Jakovenko of Russia with 2760. They are followed by Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Leko and Sergei Movsesian to complete the top ten in the world.

Looking further down the list we see Alexei Shirov gaining 19 points to climb from 18th to 12th. The Azeri GM Vugar Gashimov gained 20 points to leap from 31st to 19th. The top British GM Michael Adams lost 22 points and "the other" hot prodigy Sergey Karjakin (who is the same age as Magnus Carlsen) dropped 24 points. The Spanish GM Francisco Vallejo Pons made the biggest jump, gaining 38 points and rising from 55th to 28th.

FIDE January 2009 Top Players Rating List

Top 100 Women January 2009

Naturally Judit Polgar tops the list, but Koneru Humpy is slowly closing the gap. The Indian GM is now just 72 point behind the strongest female player in history. China's wonder girl Hou Yifan lost seven points but stays in third place. Former Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria has climbed to fourth place with a rating increase of nine points. The current Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk is in tenth place after losing nine points.

Top 20 Juniors January 2009

Magnus Carlsen, now eighteen, leads the Juniors list by 70 points. He is followed by his prodigy colleague Sergey Karjakin, who had a bad rating period but managed to stay in second place. He has French prodigy Maxime Vachier Lagrave and Chinese GM Wang Hao snapping at his heels. After that there is a gap of fourty points, but on place six we have the new kid on the block, 16-year-old Fabiano Caruana, who is climbing steadly and will soon be in the top group.

Dr Tony Dowden of Launceston, Australia, asks why Hou Yifan does not appear on this list. Her rating should comfortably put her in the top 20. The reason is probably algorithmic – to be found in the formulae for generating the lists – and not sexist. We forward the question to FIDE.

Top 20 Girls January 2009

14-year-old GM Hou Yifan of China dominates the list, leading the second-placed Anna Muzychuk by 31 points. It must be said that Anna has gained 32 points in the last three-month period and deserves to be watched. GM Kateryna Lahno has retained her third place and 2488 rating after playing 15 games in that period. 17-year-old Harika Dronavalli of India continues to climb, from 2461 in October to 2473 in the current list.

Lists and data by courtesy of FIDE