Carlsen Reaches 2nd Highest Chess Rating Ever At 2830

Magnus Carlsen, the World's #1 returned to tournament action after a three month lay-off during which Viswanathan Anand defended his World Chess Championship and crushed the competition at the King's Tournament in Romania by winning 5 and drawing 5 games for a ridonculous 2918 performance rating. The result will extend Carlsen's already top-ranked rating to 2830.

That is the second highest rating in history. Only former World Champion (and Carlsen mentor) Garry Kasparov has ever been ranked higher, at 2851 (back in 1999). Carlsen is only 19 and still improving. Some commentators believe his actual rating may end up exceeding 2900.

Carlsen Tops World Chess Ratings With 2810

1	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2810	16	1990
2	Topalov, Veselin	g	BUL	2805	4	1975
3	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2790	9	1969
4	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2788	16	1975
5	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2781	17	1982
6	Gelfand, Boris	g	ISR	2761	25	1968
7	Gashimov, Vugar	g	AZE	2759	21	1986
8	Ivanchuk, Vassily	g	UKR	2749	13	1969
9	Wang, Yue	g	CHN	2749	8	1987
10	Svidler, Peter	g	RUS	2744	27	1976

The January 1, 2010 FIDE rating list is out and chess wunderkind Magnus Carlsen is at the #1 position with 2810 points ahead of former World Champion Veselin Topalov
at 2805 and current World Champion Visnwanathan Anand at 2790. Only 5 players in history have ever broken the 2800 rating barrier (Carlsen, Topalov, Anand, Kramnik and Garry Kasparov.) The top American player is Hikaru Nakamura at #28.

Happy 19th Birthday to World's #1 Chess Player, Magnus Carlsen!

Today, November 30th, is Magnus Carlsen's 19th birthday. Carlsen, the teen grandmaster from Norway is currently the World's highest rated chess player, and is also the youngest person to reach that mark.

From The New York Times:

Mr. Carlsen, who turns 19 on Nov. 30, is only the seventh No. 1-ranked player since the ranking system began in 1970. Garry Kasparov, the Russian former world champion, became No. 1 in January 1984, when he was 20 years and 9 months old. He held the spot for 18 months, lost it, and then regained it and held it for 20 consecutive years before retiring in March 2005.

The other players to be No. 1 are all former world champions, including Bobby Fischer, Anatoly Karpov, Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand.

Rankings are based on cumulative performances, measured by something called a rating. Mr. Carlsen’s rating is now 2,806, and Mr. Topalov’s is 2,805. Mr. Anand, 39, the current world champion, finished in a tie for fourth in Moscow and is now No. 3, with a rating of 2,790.

Although he is the world's highest rated player, Carlsen can not become World Champion for a few years. In April, Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and defending champion Viswanathan Anand of India will play a world championship match of several games in Sofia, Bulgaria to determine the next World Champion. Carlsen is expected by many to become World Champion in the next few years.

Topalov Wins Super GM Tournament and Regains #1 Ranking

Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria placed first at the Grand Slam Final Masters tournament in Bilbao, Spain, winning 150,000 Euros (over US$200,000) by winning 4 games, drawing 5 and losing only once (+3). World Champion Viswanahan Anand had one of his worst tournament in years, placing last with 8 draws and two losses (-2) in a field of six super Grand Masters. Danish wunderkind, 17(!)-year-old Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian tied for second place, with Carlsen having beaten Aronian both times they played in the double round-robin tournament. The other competitors were Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan.

By winning the tournament, Topalov will return to the top of the World Chess Federation rankings, which he had previously led from April 2006 until March of last year, when Anand reached #1 for the first time. Prior to March 2005, Garry Kasparov had been World #1 for nearly a decade.

Anand's poor performance may be due to the fact he was trying to hide whatever he has been preparing for his World Championship title bout with Vladimir Kramnik next month in Bonn, Germany with 1.5 million Euros at stake. Interestingly, Kramnik and Anand have played 125 times with Anand winning 19 games, losing 15 and drawing 91(!) times.

Anand Wins 5th Chess Oscar

On May 8, 2008, World Chess champion Viswanathan Anand of India won his fifth chess Oscar as the Best Player in the World for his 2007 chess performances. Anand also won chess's highest honor in 1997, 1998, 2003 and 2004.

Anand is currently the reigning World Champion and the highest rated player in the world, at 2803.

Bobby Fischer Dead at 64

The man who was once considered the best chess player of all time, former American World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer, has died in Reykjavik, Iceland at the age of 64. In the 1960s and early 1970s Fischer dominated high-level chess competition, which had been the exclusive domain of super grandmasters. In 1972, Fischer defeated the reigning World chess champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union despite losing two games by default early on. His win sparked a surge in the popularity of chess in the United States and increased worldwide attention to the game. In 1975 he forfeited his title defense to Soviet Anatoly Karpov by making unusual demands and eventually refusing to the playing conditions the World Chess Federation had negotiated for the title match.

Former World chess champion and widely considered the only player to have exceeded Fischer, Russian Garry Kasparov said "The tragedy is that he left this world too early, and his extravagant life and scandalous statements did not contribute to the popularity of chess."

Kasparov Arrested In Russia

Former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov was arrested in Moscow on Saturday at an anti-government rally for the second time this year. He was sentenced to serve 5 days in jail.

Kasparov has emerged as a leading opposition spokesperson and is the official candidate for President of Russia of the Other Russia political party coalition. He is widely regarded as the best chess player of all time and is well-known to citizens of the former Soviet Republics as a national hero for his chess prowess.

Anand Breaks 2800 Barrier

The World Chess Federation's new Top 10 rating is out and newly crowned World Champion Viswanathan Anand is not only in the top spot, but he has again broken the 2800 barrier, one of only four people to ever have done so (Veselin Topalov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik are the others).

1. V. Anand (India), 2801 (+9)
2. V. Ivanchuk (Ukraine), 2787 (+25)
3. V. Kramnik (Russia), 2785 (+16)
4. V. Topalov (Bulgaria), 2769 (=)
5. P. Leko (Hungary), 2755 (+4)
6. A. Morozevich (Russia), 2755 (-3)
7. S. Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), 2752 (-5)
8. T. Radjabov (Azerbaijan), 2742 (-6)
9. L. Aronian (Armenia), 2741 (-9)
10. A. Shirov (Spain), 2739 (+4)