tag: Ratings - Page 2

June 2015 ratings: Stars and Stripes

5/31/2015 – The ratings list this month brings milestones, not so much in records, but in personal bests that remain remarkable and noteworthy. The first is by Hikaru Nakamura who gains three Elo this month. It might not seem worth mentioning, but that was all it took to finally break 2800, in a month in which the US had plenty to celebrate. Here are the ratings, stats, and stories.

May 2015 ratings: Vishy Anand is world no.2

4/30/2015 – A new month and a new ratings list, and what a list, with so many eye-opening results. However, the one that just begs to be yelled from rooftops by his legion of fans, and imposes silence from detractors and critics, is Vishy Anand's fantastic climb back to world no.2 with a 2804 rating. It is not the only remarkable swing or change since now China has seven 2700 players.

April 2015 ratings: Youth on the rise

4/1/2015 – After an incredibly busy couple of months, the April ratings list was a fairly quiet one for the top players for the most part. It isn't that the players were all on vacation, hardly, considering David Navara logged in 29 games in just one month. On the other hand, the juniors and girls saw several incredible results, including the rise of 10-year-old Abdutassorov, now rated 2465.

March 2015 ratings: After 26 years, Yifan no.1

2/28/2015 – 26 years and two months to be exact. On January 1989, 12-year-old Judit Polgar appeared on the FIDE ratings list with a 2555 rating, making her the youngest Top 100 ever, and the no.1 female player in the world, a ranking she held until today, when Hou Yifan officially became the new no.1. Also this month, Wei Yi becomes the youngest player ever rated 2700.

February 2015 ratings: the fulfillment of promise

1/31/2015 – It should come as no surprise that the list of February is a celebration of youth fulfilling their promise. Though it was not a mere month that revealed it, it was nevertheless a month that seemed to punctuate a year of toil and resolve for stars Giri, So, MVL and Ding Liren. Still, their results were overshadowed by one who became world no.1 and gained 426 Elo in two weeks!

January 2015 ratings: a few extraordinary results

1/1/2015 – It would be easy to presume that with the last month of the year having just played through, with little in the way of Super GM tournaments to discuss, that the list ushering in the new year would have little to say, but as it is, not so. As you will see, this list contains not a few extraordinary results such as the boy who went from 1949 to 2517 in three months!

December 2014 ratings: A few more historic marks

12/2/2014 – It was a remarkable month and not merely because of the amount of top level chess. Although nearly everything was overshadowed by the World Championship, new historic marks were set. Alexander Grischuk had the best result of his career and rocketed to 2810, while Samuel Sevian became the youngest GM in US history. Not least is Wei Yi who is now in the Top 100 at age 15.

November 2014 ratings – minor adjustments

11/1/2014 – Minor adjustments at the top, anyway. The gap between the perennial leader Magnus Carlsen and Italian pretender Fabiano Caruana has widened slightly, and Aronian and Grischuk have switched places four and five. Young Wesley So, now affiliated as USA, has climbed into the top ten. Hou Yifan is completely dominating in the Women's, Juniors and Girls. Here are all the lists.

June 2014 ratings - US teenagers in rocket race

6/1/2014 – The June ratings list saw some standout changes such as the consistent rise by Anish Giri and Wesley So as they close in on the Top 10. French player Romain Edouard also breaks into the 2700 for the first time, but the US is seeing a race of a rare kind. While 13-year-old IM Samuel Sevian just scored a GM norm, 14-year-old IM Jeffrey Xiong has gained 76 Elo in three months.

Nakamura is world no.1 in Rapid and Blitz

5/15/2014 – FIDE Rapid and Blitz ratings is not new, allowing players who prefer more adrenaline-filled games to still achieve proper and measurable ratings. Until now FIDE had refrained from publishing Top 100 lists, since enough players had to be rated to mean anything, but not anymore. Here are the first Top 100 lists for both Rapid and Blitz ratings with more than a few surprises.

May 2014 ratings – Grischuk in third place

5/2/2014 – Alexander Grischuk gained 15 points in the past month and is now ranked number three in the world, behind Carlsen and Aronian, and ahead of Anand, Caruana, Kramnik and Nakamura. Interesting that Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez Perez has climbed into the top ten. French GM Romain Edouard 22 points, while Dutch GM Loek van Wely somehow managed to lose 29 points in a single month.

April 2014 ratings – Anand returns to third

4/2/2014 – The Candidates Tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk changed everything. Former World Champion Viswanathan Anand gained 15 rating points and climbed from eighth to third place, two points ahead of Vladimir Kramnik, who lost just four points. Levon Aronian lost 18 but retained his clear second place in the world. Magnus Carlsen remain at the top of the list, 69 points ahead of Aronian. Here's the latest list.

January 2014 ratings – Nakamura now third

1/3/2014 – The sensational change at the top of the New Year's rating list is (ta-dum!) Hikaru Nakamura's climb to number three in the world. He is not only the highest rated American of all time, he is the second American to reach the top three since the FIDE ratings were installed. Incidentally did you know that only 0.0024% of the world population has a FIDE rating? Here's the latest list.

The name of the game is domination

3/1/2013 –  With Magnus Carlsen's Elo skyrocketing past Mars, the big talk is on the record rating and how far he can take it. The secondary talk, understandably, is how this compares with past ratings, and whether the record is indeed a record. In the following article, a different perspective is shed on the subject, highlighting the most dominant rating as opposed to the highest. Food for thought.

The Elo rating system – correcting the expectancy tables

3/30/2011 – In recent years statistician Jeff Sonas has participated in FIDE meetings of "ratings experts" and received access to the historical material from the federation archives. After thorough analysis he has come to some remarkable new conclusions which he will share with our readers in a series of articles. The first gives us an excellent overview of how the rating system works. Very instructive.

Rating inflation – its causes and possible cures

7/27/2009 – Thirty years ago there was one player in the world rated over 2700. Fifteen years ago there were six. Today there are thirty-three. What is the cause of this "rating inflation". A general improvement of chess skills? A larger number of players in the rating pool? The way the initial ratings are conducted? In this clearly written article statistician Jeff Sonas addresses these questions. Must read!

The Sonas Rating Formula – Better than Elo?

10/22/2002 – Every three months, FIDE publishes a list of chess ratings calculated by a formula that Professor Arpad Elo developed decades ago. This formula has served the chess world quite well for a long time. However, statistician Jeff Sonas believes that the time has come to make some significant changes to that formula. He presents his proposal in this milestone article.
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