FIDE May ratings – Aronian ten points behind Carlsen

01.05.2012 – The gap is narrowing, Magnus! 29-year-old Armenian GM Levon Aronian, who first broke 2600 at the ripe old age of twenty, keeps crawling up the ratings ladder and is five points closer to the leader than in the previous rankings. In the current list we see many huge gains and losses, like the +29 by Viktor Bologan or the –26 by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Workers' Day list.

FIDE March 2012 – Top 100 Players

Levon Aronian is slowly crawling up the ladder and is now just ten points behind the dominant leader Magnus Carlsen. The Armenian is different: no wunderkind he. In fact the 29-year-old Aronian did not even break 2600 until he was twenty. Another aspect that strikes us when looking at the list exactly five years ago: at that time there were precisely twenty players rated 2700 or more, and today there are … 45! And in fact in the last two months since the last ratings list, these 45 players have gained 239 Elo, and lost 72, for a net 167 Elo gain. The subject of rating inflation will remail a topic of discussion by experts.

Top climbers

In the previous list there were twelve top players who had gaine ten or more points. This time it is twenty. And what climbers they be! Viktor Bologan has gained 29 points in a two-month period, Laurent Fressinet 22 and Ivan Sokolov 27. Sergey Karjakin's 13-point advance puts him in place six of the world rankings, but still 56 points behind his "twin" prodigy, the boy from Tønsberg.

Top descenders

We studiously avoid the inappropriate term "losers". This time the biggest descents were recorded for top GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, who shed 26 points and dropped from place 13 to 22 in the world rankings. We will bet you a silver shilling that "Shakh" will regain most of the lost points in the coming months. An even more precipitous descent was suffered by Danish GM Peter Heine Nielsen, the gentle giant who so capably seconds World Champion Vishy Anand. Dutch talent Anish Giri attributes his 24-point crash to "projects and other stuff relating to school."

FIDE Top 100 Women March 2012

Chinese GM Hou Yifan, 18, has lost 16 points in the last two-month period, but still remains the second highest ranked player in chess history. Perhaps she is playing too much and devoting insufficient time to studying the game. In third place in the women's rankings is now Ukrainian-Slovanian GM Anna Muzychuk, who overtook India's Koneru Humpy and is on the path to becoming (correct us if we are wrong) the fourth female player ever to break into the 2600+ club – after Judit Polgar, Hou Yifan and Koneru Humpy.

Rank	Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games	B-Year
1	Polgar, Judit	g	HUN	2709	0	1976
2	Hou, Yifan	g	CHN	2623	29	1994
3	Muzychuk, Anna	g	SLO	2598	18	1990
4	Koneru, Humpy	g	IND	2589	0	1987
5	Zhao, Xue	g	CHN	2549	9	1985
6	Dzagnidze, Nana	g	GEO	2547	11	1987
7	Lahno, Kateryna	g	UKR	2546	13	1989
8	Kosintseva, Tatiana	g	RUS	2532	11	1986
9	Gunina, Valentina	m	RUS	2530	16	1989
10	Ju, Wenjun	wg	CHN	2529	20	1991
11	Kosintseva, Nadezhda	g	RUS	2528	16	1985
12	Sebag, Marie	g	FRA	2521	11	1986
13	Stefanova, Antoaneta	g	BUL	2518	21	1979
14	Zatonskih, Anna	m	USA	2510	19	1978
15	Cmilyte, Viktorija	g	LTU	2508	15	1983
16	Harika, Dronavalli	g	IND	2508	5	1991
17	Khotenashvili, Bela	m	GEO	2500	20	1988
18	Paehtz, Elisabeth	m	GER	2491	30	1985
19	Zhu, Chen	g	QAT	2491	0	1976
20	Danielian, Elina	g	ARM	2484	11	1978
21	Socko, Monika	g	POL	2484	8	1978
22	Galliamova, Alisa	m	RUS	2484	5	1972
23	Ruan, Lufei	wg	CHN	2483	0	1987
24	Cramling, Pia	g	SWE	2478	3	1963
25	Atalik, Ekaterina	m	TUR	2474	0	1982
26	Moser, Eva	m	AUT	2469	16	1982
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