The new ratings

Ratings, ratings. It's more and more unclear to me whether they're a curse or a blessing but the fact remains that for almost every chess player no subject is more interesting than the four-digit number next to the players' names. So today we pay some attention to the new list, the FIDE ratings of July 2007. The original list, published a few days ago, just like the last one in April contained a number of errors (e.g. Michael Adams appearing twice on it!) but today the corrected version has been published.

Top 20 July 2007 (April ratings between brackets)

 1 Anand, Viswanathan      g IND  2792  (2786)  4 1969
 2 Topalov, Veselin        g BUL  2769  (2772) 10 1975
 3 Kramnik, Vladimir       g RUS  2769  (2772)  1 1975
 4 Ivanchuk, Vassily       g UKR  2762  (2729) 22 1969
 5 Morozevich, Alexander   g RUS  2758  (2762) 18 1977
 6 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar  g AZE  2757  (2757) 14 1985
 7 Leko, Peter             g HUN  2751  (2738)  9 1979
 8 Aronian, Levon          g ARM  2750  (2759) 15 1982
 9 Radjabov, Teimour       g AZE  2746  (2747)  7 1987
10 Jakovenko, Dmitry       g RUS  2735  (2708) 29 1983
11 Shirov, Alexei          g ESP  2735  (2699) 28 1972
12 Svidler, Peter          g RUS  2735  (2736)  6 1976
13 Gelfand, Boris          g ISR  2733  (2733) 21 1968
14 Grischuk, Alexander     g RUS  2726  (2717) 18 1983
15 Adams, Michael          g ENG  2724  (2734) 18 1971
16 Kamsky, Gata            g USA  2718  (2705) 28 1974
17 Carlsen, Magnus         g NOR  2710  (2693) 19 1990
18 Akopian, Vladimir       g ARM  2708  (2698)  5 1971
19 Polgar, Judit           g HUN  2707  (2727) 10 1976
20 Ponomariov, Ruslan      g UKR  2706  (2717) 16 1983

Anand extended his lead some more, Kramnik and Topalov quite surprisingly still have the same rating (Kramnik's only rated game was his draw against Smeets in the Dutch league) and Ivanchuk in great form. As always, Mark Crowther made an analysis of the top 100, noting that Seirawan, Asrian, Dreev, Azmaiparashvili, Spraggett, Khenkin, Gagunashvili, Najer and Korchnoi no longer belong to the strongest 100 chess players. But don't worry about Viktor, he dropped out a few times before and will be back!

Top 20 July 2007 women

 1 Polgar, Judit             g  HUN  2707 (2727)  10  1976
 2 Koneru, Humpy             g  IND  2572 (2575)  11  1987
 3 Cramling, Pia             g  SWE  2533 (2535)   3  1963
 4 Hou, Yifan               wg  CHN  2523 (2513)  25  1994
 5 Zhu, Chen                 g  QAT  2522 (2531)  11  1976
 6 Kosteniuk, Alexandra      g  RUS  2515 (2515)   0  1984
 7 Kosintseva, Tatiana       m  RUS  2502 (2459)  20  1986
 8 Ushenina, Anna            m  UKR  2502 (2475)  17  1985
 9 Zhao, Xue                wg	CHN  2500 (2467)  17  1985
10 Chiburdanidze, Maia       g  GEO  2496 (2510)  19  1961
11 Sebag, Marie              m	FRA  2491 (2479)  20  1986
12 Stefanova, Antoaneta      g  BUL  2481 (2492)  35  1979
13 Socko, Monika             m  POL  2479 (2481)  40  1978
14 Krush, Irina              m  USA  2479 (2478)  36  1983
15 Harika, Dronavalli        m  IND  2478 (2476)  12  1991
16 Kosintseva, Nadezhda      m  RUS  2475 (2475)  19  1985
17 Galliamova, Alisa         m	RUS  2468 (2477)   9  1972
18 Cmilyte, Viktorija        m	LTU  2467 (2462)  29  1983
19 Hoang Thanh Trang         g  HUN  2466 (2472)  40  1980
20 Vijayalakshmi, Subbaraman m  IND  2464 (2425)  42  1979

Judit lost 20 points but is still untouchable of course. The youngest player in the female top 20 is at an incredible 4th spot, the very talented lady (or should we say girl) Yifan Hou. And then there's Tatiana Kosintseva of course, climbing further up. And... how long did it take you to pronounce the name of no. 20?

Here you can download the full list.