Who Tops the July 1 FIDE Rating Lists for Classical, Rapid & Blitz?

Magnus Carlsen still has a whopping 72-point lead in the world rankings. In the July 1 FIDE rating list, the triple world champion is rated 2877 for standard chess, and is followed by Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2805) and Alexander Grischuk (Russia, 2795). The World Rapid & Blitz Championships were held recently, and so it's also interesting to look at these lists. Carlsen also tops the blitz, but had to allow Fabiana Caruana of Italy to take the lead in the rapid.

Carlsen, in fact, lost rating points compared to the previous list for standard chess: he went back from 2881 to 2877. However, since Aronian lost even more (ten points), the difference between the two increased by six points. Grischuk won three points and cemented his number-three position. All this happened in the Norway Chess tournament last month.

Viswanathan Anand of India didn't play rated games, and as a result he dropped from #5 to #7 because U.S. Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura and Russian Grandmaster Sergey Karjakin gained considerably (12 and 15 points respectively). Vladimir Kramnik of Russia lost 6 points and dropped from #6 to #8.

Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia won 11 points, and made a big jump: from #21 to #15. Radek Wojtaszek of Poland went from #33 to #22 after gaining 18 points.

July 1, 2014 FIDE Ratings | Standard | Top 25

(Top 100 here)

Two weeks ago the World Rapid and Blitz Championships were held in Dubai -- you can't have missed that. Since almost all of the world's best players were present (from the standard top 10, only Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov were not) this tournament had a big impact on the lists for rapid & blitz.

The rapid list is in fact the only one where Carlsen doesn't occupy first place. Although he won the rapid tournament in Dubai, Caruana came second with only half a point less. As a result, the Italian went from 2840 to 2858, while Carlsen went from 2827 to 2855.

Nakamura, who was the number one in the previous list, dropped to 8th place as he finished shared 24th and lost 41 points. Grischuk was third and still is, while Aronian jumped from #9 to #4. Anand was #15 and is now #6.

July 1, 2014 FIDE Ratings | Rapid | Top 25

(Top 100 here)

Nakamura did much better in the blitz in Dubai, where he came third (tied for second with Ian Nepomniachtchi). He won 27 rating points to actually cross the 2900 mark, but Carlsen's 17.0/21 in Dubai and the Norway Blitz together were good for no less than 111 Elo points. The Norwegian made a huge jump, from 2837 to 2948!

Magnus Carlsen, now having an insane 2948 blitz rating 

July 1, 2014 FIDE Ratings | Blitz | Top 25

(Top 100 here)

As became clear even more during the Lopota Grand Prix, the difference between Judit Polgar of Hungary and Hou Yifan of China in the standard list is becoming smaller and smaller. This year Polgar has topped the women's rating list for 25 years in a row, but now the question may be asked: for how long? In the July 1 list,Hou Yifan is 47 points behind, but in the live ratings it's only 29 points.

July 1, 2014 FIDE Ratings | Standard | Top 25 Women

(Top 100 here)

Judit Polgar was the only female player in Dubai, and so only her results were relevant for the rapid & blitz rating lists for women. In the rapid, she lost 10 points, and now she is 35 points ahead of Humpy Koneru of India. Hou Yifan follows, with 11 points less than Koneru. 

July 1, 2014 FIDE Ratings | Rapid | Top 25 Women

(Top 100 here)

Like Nakamura, Polgar did much better in the blitz. She won 63 points, and went up from 2673 to 2736. The difference with the number two, in this case Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine, is 71 points. Also on this list Hou Yifan is third.

July 1, 2014 FIDE Ratings | Blitz | Top 25 Women

(Top 100 here)

All data courtesy of FIDE