May FIDE Ratings: Anand 2nd, Carlsen Close To All-Time Best

GM Viswanathan Anand climbed to second place in the May 1 FIDE rating list. GM Magnus Carlsen is getting close to his all-time best rating.

Now that a super tournament is just behind us, it's interesting to look at the new FIDE rating list published yesterday. The biggest news, resulting from the Shamkir Chess tournament, is that GM Viswanathan Anand climbed back to the second spot in the world rankings. The 45-year-old Indian player's new rating is 2804.

Like Anand, GM Magnus Carlsen won 13 points, to reach 2876. That is only six points below his all-time high rating, which he achieved exactly one year ago, after winning the first edition of the Gashimov Memorial: 2882.

In the same period three other players in the top 10 dropped points. GM Alexander Grischuk lost 14 points at the World Team Championship, GM Wesley So lost 10 points in St. Louis and Shamkir (but still climbed one spot!) and GM Anish Giri dropped 14 points in Shamkir (and one game in the Dutch league).

A big winner was GM Li Chao, who gained 18 points at the Neckar Open and the Bundesliga, and climbed from #27 to #16. GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov dropped out of the top 20(!): he went from #13 to #23 after losing 19 points at the Aeroflot Open and Shamkir Chess.

FIDE Ratings  May 1, 2015 (Top 50)

The women's list saw less significant changes. GM Hou Yifan (2686) didn't play this month (but she's playing the Nakhchivan Open, which starts today!), and is still 11 points ahead of GM Judit Polgar (2675). The Hungarian chess legend has retired, and will be considered inactve by FIDE a year after her last rated game.

GM Ju Wenjun lost 12 points at the Women's World Championship, the Women's World Team Championship and the Chinese league, and dropped from #5 to #6. GM Bela Khotenashvili won 14 points at the the same three events.

World Champion IM Mariya Muzychuk ironically lost two rating points in Sochi, but won four in Chengdu. GM Harika Dronavalli, WGM Olga Girya and WGM Natalija Pogonina won 16, 15 and 18 points respectively. 

GM Elina Danielian had a bad month: she lost no fewer than 30 points at the Women's World Championship, the Women's World Team Championship and the Aeroflot Open.

FIDE Ratings  May 1, 2015 (Women, Top 50)

All data courtesy of FIDE.

Chess.com Blitz & Bullet

Let's move on to our very own lists for Blitz and Bullet chess — something we also did back in November and January. We only look at players who have been active on the site recently.

GM Hikaru (Hikaru Nakamura) tops the blitz ratings with 2825. Compared to January he gained 30 points, and increased his lead from 50 to 67 points. Second is GM LexySexy (Baadur Jobava), with 2758, followed by GM LyonBeast (Maxime Vachier-Lagrave) who has 2747.

GM GeorgMeier climbed from #9 to #4 after gaining more than 100 points in the last few months. GM EltajSafarli, who joined Chess.com at the end of January, can be found at #6.

Chess.com Live Chess | Blitz, 1 May 2015 (Top 20)

Nakamura reigns supreme in the bullet section. He increased his lead from 157 points to a staggering 265 points! He leads with an impressive (and nicely rounded) 3100 rating, while #2 GM 2Vladimirovich90 has “only” 2835. Three more players have 2800+: GM LyonBeast (MVL), GM LiemLe (Le Quang Liem) and GM Genghis_K (Federico Perez Ponsa).

GM EltajSafarli is also doing well at bullet: on this list he is #6 too. A #8 spot is impressive for a non-GM but FM GulamaliRises (Kazim Gulamali) did it.

Chess.com Live Chess | Bullet, 1 May 2015 (Top 20)