January 2009 FIDE Rating List Published
FIDE have published their latest official quarterly rating list for January 2009. The list includes all tournaments up to 15 December, but also includes FIDE organised events that finished later i.e. the Elista Grand Prix which concluded just 2 days ago.
Other recent events, notably the Pearl Springs tournament in China which finished on 22 December, are not rated this time, but will be included in the April 2009 list. The live ratings of the players over 2700 Elo are calculated at the liverating website.
With a staggering 31 players now rated 2700+ Elo, there seems no question that a degree of inflation has occurred in the chess Elo ratings over the decades since it's adoption by FIDE in 1970, when only Bobby Fischer was over 2700 Elo (peaking at 2785).
Despite his strong performance in Pearl Springs not featuring in the FIDE ratings just yet, Veselin Topalov (pictured) still tops the list with 2796 Elo. Second is the undisputed World Champion Vishy Anand on 2791 Elo. Vassily Ivanchuk hangs on to 3rd place for the moment at 2779 Elo, with his disappointing showing in Pearl Springs not yet rated, and 4th is Magnus Carlsen on 2776 who is still the top rated junior.
The top 50 players:
| Rank | Name | Country | Rating |
| 1 |
Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2796 |
| 2 |
Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2791 |
| 3 |
Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2779 |
| 4 |
Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2776 |
| 5 |
Morozevich, Alexander | RUS | 2771 |
| 6 |
Radjabov, Teimour | AZE | 2761 |
| 7 |
Jakovenko, Dmitry | RUS | 2760 |
| 8 |
Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2759 |
| 9 |
Leko, Peter | HUN | 2751 |
| 10 |
Movsesian, Sergei | SVK | 2751 |
| 11 |
Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2750 |
| 12 |
Shirov, Alexei | ESP | 2745 |
| 13 |
Wang, Yue | CHN | 2739 |
| 14 |
Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2733 |
| 15 |
Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 2733 |
| 16 |
Ponomariov, Ruslan | UKR | 2726 |
| 17 |
Kamsky, Gata | USA | 2725 |
| 18 |
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | AZE | 2724 |
| 19 |
Gashimov, Vugar | AZE | 2723 |
| 20 |
Svidler, Peter | RUS | 2723 |
| 21 |
Bacrot, Etienne | FRA | 2722 |
| 22 |
Alekseev, Evgeny | RUS | 2718 |
| 23 |
Dominguez Perez, Leinier | CUB | 2717 |
| 24 |
Adams, Michael | ENG | 2712 |
| 25 |
Sasikiran, Krishnan | IND | 2711 |
| 26 |
Ni, Hua | CHN | 2709 |
| 27 |
Karjakin, Sergey | UKR | 2706 |
| 28 |
Vallejo Pons, Francisco | ESP | 2702 |
| 29 |
Bu, Xiangzhi | CHN | 2702 |
| 30 |
Rublevsky, Sergei | RUS | 2702 |
| 31 |
Akopian, Vladimir | ARM | 2700 |
| 32 |
Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2699 |
| 33 |
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | FRA | 2696 |
| 34 |
Eljanov, Pavel | UKR | 2693 |
| 35 |
Naiditsch, Arkadij | GER | 2693 |
| 36 |
Polgar, Judit | HUN | 2693 |
| 37 |
Malakhov, Vladimir | RUS | 2692 |
| 38 |
Wang, Hao | CHN | 2691 |
| 39 |
Dreev, Alexey | RUS | 2688 |
| 40 |
Efimenko, Zahar | UKR | 2688 |
| 41 |
Vitiugov, Nikita | RUS | 2687 |
| 42 |
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam | UZB | 2687 |
| 43 |
Bologan, Viktor | MDA | 2687 |
| 44 |
Tiviakov, Sergei | NED | 2684 |
| 45 |
Almasi, Zoltan | HUN | 2680 |
| 46 |
Cheparinov, Ivan | BUL | 2679 |
| 47 |
Sargissian, Gabriel | ARM | 2678 |
| 48 |
Moiseenko, Alexander | UKR | 2676 |
| 49 |
Motylev, Alexander | RUS | 2676 |
| 50 |
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | ROU | 2675 |
