For the first time since January 1 (or rather March 31) 2007, Veselin Topalov is the highest rated player in the world. On the new FIDE rating list, published yesterday, Magnus Carlsen is number 4 and not 3 as in Hans Arild Runde's live list.
Again, FIDE has published its new rating list a few days before the official date. Since yesterday their front page heads "Topalov Regains Top Spot", something the chess fans have known for two weeks already thanks to the famous "live list" which you can also find in the far right column on this website.
Veselin Topalov's new FIDE rating is 2791 - still 22 points below his personal record by the way. After becoming the FIDE World Champion in San Luis in 2005, he also won the 2006 Corus Chess Tournament joint with Anand. On the April 2006 list he was the world's number one for the first time, a position he "successfully defended" till and including the January 2007 list. In a period where the first six players of the world are of almost equal strength, Topalov's great fighting spirit in Bilbao made the difference for the current list. At some point no less than four players had a chance to claim the highest ELO rating in October, but Topalov's last-round win against Ivanchuk decided matters.
Although he did not play in Bilbao, Alexander Morozevich managed to keep his second spot. On the last list he had the same rating as his compatriot Kramnik; this time he's clear second, but having just one point more than
Vassily Ivanchuk and
Magnus Carlsen. On the live list Carlsen has 2786,1 and Ivanchuk 2785,6 which both rounds off to 2786. For FIDE, the one who has played the most games "wins" (and when Ivanchuk is involved, he's usually the one!) And so there's only a difference of five points in the top four this time.
It's a bit ironic that two weeks before their World Championship match in Bonn,
Viswanathan Anand and
Vladimir Kramnik have dropped to 5th and 6th place, while they were sharing the first spot only three lists ago! Both have had one very bad tournament this summer (Kramnik in Dortmund; Anand in Bilbao) and of course there's a connection with the upcoming match.Levon Aronian is back in the top 10; he won 20 points and climbed from 12th to 7th place. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov lost 11 points and dropped from 8th to 14th place. Peter Svidler lost "touch" with the top 10, dropping from 11th to 17th.Let's go to the new stars. After winning the first Grand Prix tournament in Baku (shared with Gashimov and Carlsen) and finishing shared third in Sochi, Wang Yue's fantastic 8.5 out of 10 at the NH Chess Tournament lifted him up to the 11th place, with a rating of 2736 (2740 on the live list, by the way). One spot higher is Dmitry Jakovenko, who has one rating point more.
As we
predicted a week after the July list was published,
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is France's new number one: he'll turn 18 on October 21st (the same generation as Carlsen and Karjakin!) but he's already in the world's top 25, rated 2716 now, 11 points more than Etienne Bacrot.In the October list we see that there are now 32 players with a FIDE rating above 2700. These include two more new members of the elite club: Hikaru Nakamura and Sergei Rublevsky. New or back in the top 100 are Alexander Riazantsev, (2656), Boris Savchenko (2648), Fabiano Caruana (2640), Nikita Vitiugov (2638), Alexander Graf (2636), Jan Gustafsson (2634) and Vadim Malakhatko (2633).In the women's list, Judit Polgar was, is and will be the number one - she's still rated 2711 after she didn't play a rated game this summer. Actually Polgar should have been mentioned in the above (men's) section; since she never plays women's events she might even prefer to be called "the world's number 27"!
World championship semi-finalist Humpy Koneru lost four rating points in the last three months but this didn't threaten her supremacy in the "rest of the ladies" list. We do have a new number three: 14-year-old
Hou Yifan just keeps on rollin' and won 21 points this time, overtaking former world champion and compatriot Xie Jun by four points. The new world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk won fifteen points but only went up from 10th to 8th place. Below you'll find the new top 100, the top 100 women, the top 20 juniors and the top 20 girls. We give the lists including the changes with the previous list.
(It should also be mentioned when FIDE is doing good things and actually the ratings section on their website has greatly improved!)FIDE OCTOBER 2008 RATING LIST: TOP 100 PLAYERS
Legend:
black color - player remained on the same position
green color - player moved up in the list
red color - player moved down in the list
blue color - player is new to the current Top list
Old represents player's position in the previous period list
| Rank | Old | Name | Title | Country | Rating | Games |
| 1 | 5 | Topalov, Veselin | g | BUL | 2791 (+14) | 10 (0) |
| 2 | 2 | Morozevich, Alexander | g | RUS | 2787 (-1) | 9 (-11) |
| 3 | 4 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | g | UKR | 2786 (+5) | 50 (+25) |
| 4 | 6 | Carlsen, Magnus | g | NOR | 2786 (+11) | 31 (+15) |
| 5 | 1 | Anand, Viswanathan | g | IND | 2783 (-15) | 10 (+8) |
| 6 | 3 | Kramnik, Vladimir | g | RUS | 2772 (-16) | 16 (+16) |
| 7 | 12 | Aronian, Levon | g | ARM | 2757 (+20) | 23 (+12) |
| 8 | 7 | Radjabov, Teimour | g | AZE | 2751 (+7) | 23 (-8) |
| 9 | 10 | Leko, Peter | g | HUN | 2747 (+6) | 16 (+16) |
| 10 | 24 | Jakovenko, Dmitry | g | RUS | 2737 (+28) | 39 (+19) |
| 11 | 29 | Wang, Yue | g | CHN | 2736 (+32) | 23 (-5) |
| 12 | 13 | Adams, Michael | g | ENG | 2734 (-1) | 16 (-4) |
| 13 | 16 | Movsesian, Sergei | g | SVK | 2732 (+9) | 12 (-41) |
| 14 | 8 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | g | AZE | 2731 (-11) | 16 (-7) |
| 15 | 15 | Karjakin, Sergey | g | UKR | 2730 (+3) | 24 (-3) |
| 16 | 17 | Kamsky, Gata | g | USA | 2729 (+6) | 22 (-6) |
| 17 | 11 | Svidler, Peter | g | RUS | 2727 (-11) | 24 (-8) |
| 18 | 9 | Shirov, Alexei | g | ESP | 2726 (-15) | 34 (+23) |
| 19 | 21 | Eljanov, Pavel | g | UKR | 2720 (+4) | 26 (+3) |
| 20 | 18 | Gelfand, Boris | g | ISR | 2719 (-1) | 27 (+17) |
| 21 | 25 | Dominguez Perez, Leinier | g | CUB | 2719 (+11) | 15 (-4) |
| 22 | 19 | Ponomariov, Ruslan | g | UKR | 2719 (+1) | 14 (+4) |
| 23 | 14 | Grischuk, Alexander | g | RUS | 2719 (-9) | 13 (-8) |
| 24 | 39 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | g | FRA | 2716 (+35) | 30 (-5) |
| 25 | 26 | Alekseev, Evgeny | g | RUS | 2715 (+7) | 30 (+18) |
| 26 | 23 | Bu, Xiangzhi | g | CHN | 2714 (+4) | 9 (-16) |
| 27 | 22 | Polgar, Judit | g | HUN | 2711 (0) | 0 (-3) |
| 28 | 27 | Ni, Hua | g | CHN | 2710 (+5) | 5 (-23) |
| 29 | 33 | Bacrot, Etienne | g | FRA | 2705 (+14) | 23 (-14) |
| 30 | 31 | Nakamura, Hikaru | g | USA | 2704 (+7) | 6 (-21) |
| 31 | 20 | Gashimov, Vugar | g | AZE | 2703 (-14) | 27 (-7) |
| 32 | 30 | Rublevsky, Sergei | g | RUS | 2702 (+3) | 14 (+4) |
| 33 | 36 | Cheparinov, Ivan | g | BUL | 2696 (+9) | 28 (+5) |
| 34 | 34 | Wang, Hao | g | CHN | 2696 (+5) | 9 (-19) |
| 35 | 38 | Sasikiran, Krishnan | g | IND | 2694 (+10) | 9 (-9) |
| 36 | 79 | Tiviakov, Sergei | g | NED | 2686 (+41) | 56 (+14) |
| 37 | 32 | Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter | g | ROU | 2684 (-8) | 19 (-7) |
| 38 | 49 | Najer, Evgeniy | g | RUS | 2682 (+12) | 20 (-18) |
| 39 | 37 | Bologan, Viktor | g | MDA | 2682 (-4) | 9 (-24) |
| 40 | 28 | Milov, Vadim | g | SUI | 2681 (-24) | 9 (-7) |
| 41 | 48 | Efimenko, Zahar | g | UKR | 2680 (+10) | 10 (-30) |
| 42 | 45 | Akopian, Vladimir | g | ARM | 2679 (+6) | 5 (-12) |
| 43 | 97 | Moiseenko, Alexander | g | UKR | 2678 (+46) | 40 (+13) |
| 44 | 54 | Naiditsch, Arkadij | g | GER | 2678 (+13) | 17 (-25) |
| 45 | 40 | Roiz, Michael | g | ISR | 2677 (-3) | 32 (0) |
| 46 | 44 | Fressinet, Laurent | g | FRA | 2676 (+3) | 12 (-29) |
| 47 | 35 | Malakhov, Vladimir | g | RUS | 2675 (-14) | 21 (+10) |
| 48 | 60 | Postny, Evgeny | g | ISR | 2674 (+13) | 40 (+5) |
| 49 | 43 | Motylev, Alexander | g | RUS | 2672 (-2) | 11 (-12) |
| 50 | 41 | Kasimdzhanov, Rustam | g | UZB | 2672 (-7) | 5 (-20) |
| 51 | 73 | Timofeev, Artyom | g | RUS | 2670 (+20) | 20 (-20) |
| 52 | 64 | Dreev, Alexey | g | RUS | 2670 (+13) | 5 (-12) |
| 53 | 42 | Inarkiev, Ernesto | g | RUS | 2669 (-6) | 22 (-7) |
| 54 | 51 | Nikolic, Predrag | g | BIH | 2669 (0) | 0 (-28) |
| 55 | 75 | Vallejo Pons, Francisco | g | ESP | 2664 (+14) | 22 (-5) |
| 56 | 55 | Jobava, Baadur | g | GEO | 2664 (-1) | 12 (+3) |
| 57 | 56 | Areshchenko, Alexander | g | UKR | 2664 (0) | 0 (-40) |
| 58 | 58 | Tkachiev, Vladislav | g | FRA | 2664 (0) | 0 (-18) |
| 59 | 52 | Almasi, Zoltan | g | HUN | 2663 (-5) | 5 (-21) |
| 60 | 71 | Nielsen, Peter Heine | g | DEN | 2662 (+10) | 10 (-32) |
| 61 | 47 | Volokitin, Andrei | g | UKR | 2659 (-12) | 29 (-2) |
| 62 | 53 | Harikrishna, P. | g | IND | 2659 (-9) | 12 (-3) |
| 63 | 57 | Ivanisevic, Ivan | g | SRB | 2658 (-6) | 42 (+11) |
| 64 | 66 | Avrukh, Boris | g | ISR | 2657 (+1) | 16 (-19) |
| 65 | - | Riazantsev, Alexander | g | RUS | 2656 (+) | 32 (+) |
| 66 | 85 | Grachev, Boris | g | RUS | 2653 (+13) | 22 (0) |
| 67 | 87 | Lastin, Alexander | g | RUS | 2651 (+12) | 20 (-9) |
| 68 | 70 | Sutovsky, Emil | g | ISR | 2651 (-3) | 19 (-9) |
| 69 | 72 | Karpov, Anatoly | g | RUS | 2651 (0) | 0 (-3) |
| 70 | 82 | Guseinov, Gadir | g | AZE | 2650 (+7) | 20 (-16) |
| 71 | 63 | Sokolov, Ivan | g | NED | 2650 (-8) | 11 (-16) |
| 72 | 90 | Smirin, Ilia | g | ISR | 2649 (+12) | 27 (+5) |
| 73 | 98 | Zhang, Zhong | g | SIN | 2649 (+17) | 20 (-3) |
| 74 | - | Savchenko, Boris | g | RUS | 2648 (+) | 43 (+) |
| 75 | 67 | Khenkin, Igor | g | GER | 2647 (-8) | 20 (-25) |
| 76 | 69 | Bareev, Evgeny | g | RUS | 2647 (-8) | 15 (+8) |
| 77 | 62 | Tregubov, Pavel V. | g | RUS | 2646 (-12) | 12 (-24) |
| 78 | 59 | Zvjaginsev, Vadim | g | RUS | 2646 (-17) | 11 (+1) |
| 79 | 77 | Tomashevsky, Evgeny | g | RUS | 2646 (0) | 0 (-21) |
| 80 | 80 | Berkes, Ferenc | g | HUN | 2645 (0) | 27 (-4) |
| 81 | 46 | Georgiev, Kiril | g | BUL | 2645 (-26) | 23 (-9) |
| 82 | 50 | Onischuk, Alexander | g | USA | 2644 (-26) | 30 (+9) |
| 83 | 99 | Sadvakasov, Darmen | g | KAZ | 2643 (+11) | 16 (+7) |
| 84 | 61 | Sargissian, Gabriel | g | ARM | 2642 (-18) | 12 (-21) |
| 85 | 68 | Short, Nigel D | g | ENG | 2642 (-13) | 11 (-14) |
| 86 | 95 | Sakaev, Konstantin | g | RUS | 2640 (+6) | 11 (-11) |
| 87 | - | Caruana, Fabiano | g | ITA | 2640 (+) | 10 (+) |
| 88 | 84 | Kazhgaleyev, Murtas | g | KAZ | 2640 (-1) | 9 (-10) |
| 89 | - | Vitiugov, Nikita | g | RUS | 2638 (+) | 21 (+) |
| 90 | - | Graf, Alexander | g | GER | 2636 (+) | 32 (+) |
| 91 | 83 | Zhang, Pengxiang | g | CHN | 2636 (-7) | 4 (-20) |
| 92 | 102 | Vescovi, Giovanni | g | BRA | 2635 (+4) | 9 (-15) |
| 93 | 74 | Amonatov, Farrukh | g | TJK | 2634 (-16) | 29 (+1) |
| 94 | 101 | Gurevich, Mikhail | g | TUR | 2634 (+3) | 19 (-12) |
| 95 | 86 | Nyback, Tomi | g | FIN | 2634 (-5) | 18 (-16) |
| 96 | - | Gustafsson, Jan | g | GER | 2634 (+) | 12 (+) |
| 97 | 96 | Seirawan, Yasser | g | USA | 2634 (0) | 0 (-2) |
| 98 | - | Malakhatko, Vadim | g | BEL | 2633 (+) | 69 (+) |
| 99 | 76 | Navara, David | g | CZE | 2633 (-13) | 22 (-21) |
| 100 | 91 | Istratescu, Andrei | g | ROU | 2633 (-3) | 9 (-23) |
FIDE OCTOBER 2008 RATING LIST: TOP 100 WOMEN
| Rank | Old | Name | Title | Country | Rating | Games |
| 1 | 1 | Polgar, Judit | g | HUN | 2711 (0) | 0 (-3) |
| 2 | 2 | Koneru, Humpy | g | IND | 2618 (-4) | 15 (-13) |
| 3 | 4 | Hou, Yifan | wg | CHN | 2578 (+21) | 40 (+5) |
| 4 | 3 | Xie, Jun | g | CHN | 2574 (0) | 0 (0) |
| 5 | 6 | Cramling, Pia | g | SWE | 2550 (+6) | 23 (+2) |
| 6 | 5 | Stefanova, Antoaneta | g | BUL | 2548 (-2) | 15 (-13) |
| 7 | 7 | Sebag, Marie | g | FRA | 2533 (+4) | 7 (-8) |
| 8 | 10 | Kosteniuk, Alexandra | g | RUS | 2525 (+15) | 21 (+19) |
| 9 | 8 | Zhao, Xue | g | CHN | 2518 (-4) | 4 (-31) |
| 10 | 16 | Danielian, Elina | m | ARM | 2513 (+18) | 27 (+5) |
| 11 | 9 | Kosintseva, Tatiana | m | RUS | 2513 (+2) | 6 (-3) |
| 12 | 11 | Cmilyte, Viktorija | m | LTU | 2512 (+4) | 14 (-13) |
| 13 | 13 | Muzychuk, Anna | m | SLO | 2508 (+4) | 19 (-11) |
| 14 | 36 | Dzagnidze, Nana | m | GEO | 2503 (+45) | 45 (+16) |
| 15 | 22 | Ushenina, Anna | m | UKR | 2496 (+20) | 15 (-13) |
| 16 | 14 | Ruan, Lufei | wg | CHN | 2496 (-3) | 6 (0) |
| 17 | 15 | Zhu, Chen | g | QAT | 2496 (0) | 0 (-14) |
| 18 | 18 | Chiburdanidze, Maia | g | GEO | 2489 (0) | 0 (0) |
| 19 | 12 | Lahno, Kateryna | g | UKR | 2488 (-19) | 24 (+4) |
| 20 | 17 | Zhukova, Natalia | wg | UKR | 2488 (-1) | 11 (-9) |
| 21 | 19 | Hoang Thanh Trang | g | HUN | 2483 (-4) | 13 (-18) |
| 22 | 20 | Xu, Yuhua | g | CHN | 2477 (-6) | 11 (-6) |
| 23 | 25 | Pogonina, Natalija | wg | RUS | 2474 (+5) | 12 (-8) |
| 24 | 26 | Gaponenko, Inna | m | UKR | 2473 (+5) | 52 (+15) |
| 25 | 31 | Javakhishvili, Lela | m | GEO | 2473 (+12) | 11 (-23) |
| 26 | 21 | Paehtz, Elisabeth | m | GER | 2471 (-10) | 13 (-30) |
| 27 | 33 | Kosintseva, Nadezhda | m | RUS | 2468 (+8) | 6 (-1) |
| 28 | 29 | Hunt, Harriet V | m | ENG | 2462 (0) | 0 (-12) |
| 29 | 30 | Qin, Kanying | wg | CHN | 2462 (0) | 0 (-5) |
| 30 | 32 | Harika, Dronavalli | m | IND | 2461 (0) | 38 (+16) |
| 31 | 35 | Korbut, Ekaterina | m | RUS | 2459 (0) | 0 (-9) |
| 32 | 27 | Skripchenko, Almira | m | FRA | 2455 (-8) | 13 (-15) |
| 33 | 28 | Peng, Zhaoqin | g | NED | 2455 (-7) | 9 (-21) |
| 34 | 24 | Krush, Irina | m | USA | 2452 (-18) | 8 (-23) |
| 35 | 39 | Shen, Yang | wg | CHN | 2450 (+5) | 8 (-10) |
| 36 | 37 | Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan | m | SCO | 2448 (0) | 0 (-7) |
| 37 | 43 | Dembo, Yelena | m | GRE | 2446 (+15) | 18 (-2) |
| 38 | 40 | Mkrtchian, Lilit | m | ARM | 2443 (+7) | 12 (-5) |
| 39 | 38 | Zatonskih, Anna | m | USA | 2440 (-6) | 10 (-21) |
| 40 | 41 | Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina | m | RUS | 2439 (+4) | 5 (-30) |
| 41 | 55 | Lomineishvili, Maia | m | GEO | 2437 (+23) | 15 (+4) |
| 42 | 56 | Muzychuk, Mariya | wg | UKR | 2436 (+23) | 30 (-1) |
| 43 | 23 | Socko, Monika | m | POL | 2434 (-39) | 32 (-6) |
| 44 | 46 | Atalik, Ekaterina | m | TUR | 2432 (+6) | 31 (+3) |
| 45 | 61 | Peptan, Corina-Isabela | m | ROU | 2430 (+21) | 36 (+17) |
| 46 | 54 | Hagarova, Zuzana | m | SVK | 2430 (+15) | 9 (-13) |
| 47 | 44 | Huang, Qian | wg | CHN | 2430 (0) | 0 (-8) |
| 48 | 53 | Ovod, Evgenija | m | RUS | 2429 (+13) | 7 (-12) |
| 49 | 45 | Shadrina, Tatiana | wg | RUS | 2429 (0) | 0 (-9) |
| 50 | 47 | Li, Ruofan | wg | SIN | 2426 (+1) | 11 (-14) |
| 51 | 42 | Tania, Sachdev | m | IND | 2425 (-7) | 12 (-6) |
| 52 | 51 | Tairova, Elena | m | RUS | 2422 (+5) | 11 (-7) |
| 53 | 48 | Bojkovic, Natasa | m | SRB | 2420 (-3) | 8 (-3) |
| 54 | 49 | Zdebskaja, Natalia | wg | UKR | 2419 (-3) | 7 (-26) |
| 55 | 57 | Khurtsidze, Nino | m | GEO | 2417 (+4) | 14 (+14) |
| 56 | 60 | Matnadze, Ana | m | GEO | 2411 (0) | 40 (+23) |
| 57 | 58 | Matveeva, Svetlana | m | RUS | 2411 (-1) | 4 (-25) |
| 58 | 52 | Melia, Salome | m | GEO | 2410 (-6) | 43 (+23) |
| 59 | 64 | Mongontuul, Bathuyag | wg | MGL | 2410 (+4) | 4 (-26) |
| 60 | 62 | Khukhashvili, Sopiko | m | GEO | 2409 (+1) | 13 (-7) |
| 61 | 63 | Wang, Pin | wg | CHN | 2407 (0) | 0 (-5) |
| 62 | 59 | Maric, Alisa | m | SRB | 2405 (-7) | 25 (+25) |
| 63 | 50 | Rajlich, Iweta | m | POL | 2404 (-13) | 40 (+20) |
| 64 | 67 | Repkova, Eva | m | SVK | 2400 (-3) | 18 (-10) |
| 65 | 66 | Michna, Marta | wg | GER | 2399 (-5) | 18 (+7) |
| 66 | 65 | Houska, Jovanka | m | ENG | 2399 (-6) | 11 (0) |
| 67 | - | Borsuk, Angela | wg | ISR | 2398 (+) | 35 (+) |
| 68 | 86 | Romanko, Marina | wg | RUS | 2398 (+24) | 20 (0) |
| 69 | 71 | Ju, Wenjun | | CHN | 2397 (+8) | 4 (-11) |
| 70 | 73 | Tan, Zhongyi | | CHN | 2395 (+8) | 4 (-14) |
| 71 | - | Nadig, Kruttika | wm | IND | 2387 (+) | 62 (+) |
| 72 | - | Karavade, Eesha | wg | IND | 2386 (+) | 46 (+) |
| 73 | 75 | Stepovaia, Tatiana | wg | RUS | 2386 (+3) | 12 (-17) |
| 74 | 76 | Alexandrova, Olga | m | UKR | 2383 (0) | 0 (-9) |
| 75 | 69 | Bodnaruk, Anastasia | wf | RUS | 2381 (-13) | 21 (-24) |
| 76 | 79 | Gunina, Valentina | wf | RUS | 2381 (0) | 0 (-24) |
| 77 | 78 | Turova, Irina | m | RUS | 2381 (0) | 0 (-29) |
| 78 | 80 | Wang, Yu A. | m | CHN | 2381 (0) | 0 (-19) |
| 79 | - | Zozulia, Anna | m | BEL | 2380 (+) | 36 (+) |
| 80 | 68 | Vajda, Szidonia | m | HUN | 2380 (-17) | 20 (-21) |
| 81 | 96 | Kovanova, Baira | wg | RUS | 2379 (+20) | 8 (-12) |
| 82 | 70 | Zawadzka, Jolanta | wg | POL | 2378 (-11) | 36 (+19) |
| 83 | 82 | Kononenko, Tatiana | m | UKR | 2377 (0) | 0 (0) |
| 84 | 74 | Moser, Eva | m | AUT | 2376 (-7) | 20 (-24) |
| 85 | 101 | Pokorna, Regina | wg | SVK | 2376 (+19) | 9 (-18) |
| 86 | 72 | Madl, Ildiko | m | HUN | 2376 (-11) | 4 (-28) |
| 87 | 85 | Kachiani-Gersinska, Ketino | m | GER | 2371 (-3) | 2 (-27) |
| 88 | 87 | Nemcova, Katerina | wg | CZE | 2369 (-3) | 18 (-5) |
| 89 | 93 | Vasilkova, Svetlana | wm | RUS | 2369 (+8) | 8 (-20) |
| 90 | 91 | Vasilevich, Tatjana | m | UKR | 2368 (+3) | 8 (-17) |
| 91 | 89 | Zimina, Olga | wg | ITA | 2368 (0) | 0 (-25) |
| 92 | 100 | Milliet, Sophie | wg | FRA | 2366 (+9) | 20 (-13) |
| 93 | 94 | Lujan, Carolina | m | ARG | 2366 (+5) | 18 (-7) |
| 94 | 90 | Chistiakova, Tamara | wf | RUS | 2366 (0) | 0 (0) |
| 95 | - | Foisor, Cristina Adela | wg | ROU | 2365 (+) | 36 (+) |
| 96 | - | Sedina, Elena | m | ITA | 2365 (+) | 13 (+) |
| 97 | - | Zaiatz, Elena | m | RUS | 2364 (+) | 9 (+) |
| 98 | - | Dworakowska, Joanna | m | POL | 2363 (+) | 9 (+) |
| 99 | 81 | Fierro Baquero, Martha L. | m | ECU | 2361 (-18) | 17 (-8) |
| 100 | - | Gvetadze, Sopio | m | GEO | 2361 (+) | 15 (+) |
FIDE OCTOBER 2008 RATING LIST: TOP 20 JUNIORS
| Rank | Old | Name | Title | Country | Rating | Games |
| 1 | 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | g | NOR | 2786 (+11) | 31 (+15) |
| 2 | 2 | Karjakin, Sergey | g | UKR | 2730 (+3) | 24 (-3) |
| 3 | 4 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | g | FRA | 2716 (+35) | 30 (-5) |
| 4 | 3 | Wang, Hao | g | CHN | 2696 (+5) | 9 (-19) |
| 5 | 5 | Caruana, Fabiano | g | ITA | 2640 (+10) | 10 (-17) |
| 6 | 6 | Mamedov, Rauf | g | AZE | 2631 (+4) | 31 (+11) |
| 7 | 17 | Kuzubov, Yuriy | g | UKR | 2622 (+44) | 33 (+4) |
| 8 | 13 | Li, Chao b | g | CHN | 2622 (+32) | 33 (-7) |
| 9 | 10 | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | g | RUS | 2616 (+14) | 18 (0) |
| 10 | 9 | Zhou, Jianchao | g | CHN | 2612 (+8) | 9 (-10) |
| 11 | 18 | So, Wesley | g | PHI | 2610 (+33) | 69 (+35) |
| 12 | 7 | Rodshtein, Maxim | g | ISR | 2609 (+4) | 42 (+13) |
| 13 | 8 | Andreikin, Dmitry | g | RUS | 2603 (-1) | 22 (-11) |
| 14 | - | Negi, Parimarjan | g | IND | 2597 (+) | 36 (+) |
| 15 | - | Howell, David W L | g | ENG | 2593 (+) | 32 (+) |
| 16 | 15 | Zhigalko, Sergei | g | BLR | 2592 (+9) | 22 (+11) |
| 17 | 11 | Laznicka, Viktor | g | CZE | 2591 (-10) | 13 (-29) |
| 18 | 19 | Le, Quang Liem | g | VIE | 2583 (+6) | 22 (+11) |
| 19 | - | Fier, Alexandr | g | BRA | 2581 (+) | 31 (+) |
| 20 | - | Gareev, Timur | g | UZB | 2581 (+) | 13 (+) |
FIDE OCTOBER 2008 RATING LIST: TOP 20 GIRLSDue to technical problems, for this list unfortunately at the moment we cannot present a comparison with the previous list
| Rank | Name | Title | Country | Rating | Games | B-Year |
| 1 | Hou, Yifan | wg | CHN | 2578 | 40 | 1994 |
| 2 | Muzychuk, Anna | m | SLO | 2508 | 19 | 1990 |
| 3 | Lahno, Kateryna | g | UKR | 2488 | 24 | 1989 |
| 4 | Harika, Dronavalli | m | IND | 2461 | 38 | 1991 |
| 5 | Shen, Yang | wg | CHN | 2450 | 8 | 1989 |
| 6 | Muzychuk, Mariya | wg | UKR | 2436 | 30 | 1992 |
| 7 | Tairova, Elena | m | RUS | 2422 | 11 | 1991 |
| 8 | Ju, Wenjun | | CHN | 2397 | 4 | 1991 |
| 9 | Tan, Zhongyi | | CHN | 2395 | 4 | 1991 |
| 10 | Nadig, Kruttika | wm | IND | 2387 | 62 | 1988 |
| 11 | Bodnaruk, Anastasia | wf | RUS | 2381 | 21 | 1992 |
| 12 | Gunina, Valentina | wf | RUS | 2381 | 0 | 1989 |
| 13 | Nemcova, Katerina | wg | CZE | 2369 | 18 | 1990 |
| 14 | Vasilkova, Svetlana | wm | RUS | 2369 | 8 | 1988 |
| 15 | Zhang, Xiaowen | wm | CHN | 2357 | 21 | 1989 |
| 16 | Dolzhikova, Kateryna | wm | UKR | 2351 | 22 | 1988 |
| 17 | Khotenashvili, Bela | wg | GEO | 2350 | 13 | 1988 |
| 18 | Stock, Lara | wm | CRO | 2346 | 0 | 1992 |
| 19 | Nebolsina, Vera | wg | RUS | 2340 | 2 | 1989 |
| 20 | Vojinovic, Jovana | wm | MNE | 2332 | 24 | 1992 |
| 21 | Girya, Olga | wf | RUS | 2332 | 9 | 1991 |
For the first time since January 1 (or rather March 31) 2007, Veselin Topalov is the highest rated player in the world. On the new FIDE rating list, published yesterday, Magnus Carlsen is number 4 and not 3 as in Hans Arild Runde's live list.
Again, FIDE has published its new rating list a few days before the official date. Since yesterday their front page heads "Topalov Regains Top Spot", something the chess fans have known for two weeks already thanks to the famous "live list" which you can also find in the far right column on this website.
Veselin Topalov's new FIDE rating is 2791 - still 22 points below his personal record by the way. After becoming the FIDE World Champion in San Luis in 2005, he also won the 2006 Corus Chess Tournament joint with Anand. On the April 2006 list he was the world's number one for the first time, a position he "successfully defended" till and including the January 2007 list. In a period where the first six players of the world are of almost equal strength, Topalov's great fighting spirit in Bilbao made the difference for the current list. At some point no less than four players had a chance to claim the highest ELO rating in October, but Topalov's last-round win against Ivanchuk decided matters.
Although he did not play in Bilbao, Alexander Morozevich managed to keep his second spot. On the last list he had the same rating as his compatriot Kramnik; this time he's clear second, but having just one point more than Vassily Ivanchuk and Magnus Carlsen. On the live list Carlsen has 2786,1 and Ivanchuk 2785,6 which both rounds off to 2786. For FIDE, the one who has played the most games "wins" (and when Ivanchuk is involved, he's usually the one!) And so there's only a difference of five points in the top four this time.
It's a bit ironic that two weeks before their World Championship match in Bonn, Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik have dropped to 5th and 6th place, while they were sharing the first spot only three lists ago! Both have had one very bad tournament this summer (Kramnik in Dortmund; Anand in Bilbao) and of course there's a connection with the upcoming match.Levon Aronian is back in the top 10; he won 20 points and climbed from 12th to 7th place. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov lost 11 points and dropped from 8th to 14th place. Peter Svidler lost "touch" with the top 10, dropping from 11th to 17th.Let's go to the new stars. After winning the first Grand Prix tournament in Baku (shared with Gashimov and Carlsen) and finishing shared third in Sochi, Wang Yue's fantastic 8.5 out of 10 at the NH Chess Tournament lifted him up to the 11th place, with a rating of 2736 (2740 on the live list, by the way). One spot higher is Dmitry Jakovenko, who has one rating point more. 
As we predicted a week after the July list was published, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is France's new number one: he'll turn 18 on October 21st (the same generation as Carlsen and Karjakin!) but he's already in the world's top 25, rated 2716 now, 11 points more than Etienne Bacrot.In the October list we see that there are now 32 players with a FIDE rating above 2700. These include two more new members of the elite club: Hikaru Nakamura and Sergei Rublevsky. New or back in the top 100 are Alexander Riazantsev, (2656), Boris Savchenko (2648), Fabiano Caruana (2640), Nikita Vitiugov (2638), Alexander Graf (2636), Jan Gustafsson (2634) and Vadim Malakhatko (2633).In the women's list, Judit Polgar was, is and will be the number one - she's still rated 2711 after she didn't play a rated game this summer. Actually Polgar should have been mentioned in the above (men's) section; since she never plays women's events she might even prefer to be called "the world's number 27"!
World championship semi-finalist Humpy Koneru lost four rating points in the last three months but this didn't threaten her supremacy in the "rest of the ladies" list. We do have a new number three: 14-year-old Hou Yifan just keeps on rollin' and won 21 points this time, overtaking former world champion and compatriot Xie Jun by four points. The new world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk won fifteen points but only went up from 10th to 8th place. Below you'll find the new top 100, the top 100 women, the top 20 juniors and the top 20 girls. We give the lists including the changes with the previous list. (It should also be mentioned when FIDE is doing good things and actually the ratings section on their website has greatly improved!)
