Anand rated number one in the world
Chess
With Errol Tiwari
Stabroek News
April 22, 2007
Indian grandmaster Viswanathan Anand is currently rated the number one chess player in the world according to the new FIDE rating list, which was released on April 2.
Anand becomes only the sixth player to occupy the top place in the FIDE rating list since it was formalised in 1970. The players who previously held the top spot were Bobby Fischer, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov. Fischer was the highest-rated player in the world for 20 years although he had stopped playing competitively after he won the World Championship title in 1972.
Anand is now rated at 2786, fourteen points ahead of Topalov at 2772 in the second position. Kramnik is third at 2772 also, and he is followed by Alexander Morozevich, Levon Aronian and Mamedyarov Shakhriyaz. In seventh place is the 19-year-old teenage sensation Teimour Radjabov from Azerbaijan.
Meanwhile, the 16th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament was held in Monaco from March 17 to March 29 with a prize fund of US$300,000. Kramnik won the overall event by two points clear. He won the Blindfold event and finished joint second in the Rapid section. Anand won the Rapid event and finished second overall.
On the local scene, the Guyana Chess Association will host its next tournament on Sunday, April 29 at the YMCA.