World's Top 20 Players

As of Jan 1, 2011, the world's top 20 players according to FIDE rating are:


 1 Carlsen, Magnus  
 2 Anand, Viswanathan
 3 Aronian, Levon
 4 Kramnik, Vladimir
 5 Karjakin, Sergey
 6 Topalov, Veselin
 7 Grischuk, Alexander
 8 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
 9 Ivanchuk, Vassily
 10 Nakamura, Hikaru
 11 Ponomariov, Ruslan
 12 Radjabov, Teimour
 13 Gashimov, Vugar
 14 Wang, Yue
 15 Nepomniachtchi, Ian
 16 Gelfand, Boris
 17 Wang, Hao
 18 Svidler, Peter
 19 Kamsky, Gata
 20 Wojtaszek, Radoslaw

Carlsen remains at the top.  Other notable players: Anand went from 3rd to 2nd, Kramnik went from 5th to 4th, Topalov dropped 2nd to 6th since my last post of World Rankings.

Improve Your Rating by 400 Points

While this statement is aimed at chess players rated at about 1400 (USCF), the idea can be used by most chess players to improve their rating. Once again, I want to beat my drum about studying chess puzzles to improve your chess strength. Why?

As Michael de la Maza of www.Chesscafe.com states in his article "400 points in 400 days" (Part 1  Part 2), and his observation is backup by GM Jonathan Levitt and GM Nigel Davies,

"Chess knowledge is not the same as chess ability...and a player's chess ability is limited first and foremost by a lack of tactical ability."

And how does Michael recommend that you improve your chess ability?  Doing Chess puzzles and in his articles he recommends a study plan that he developed.

Fritz 12 vs Rybka Aquarium (Game #2)

I played Game #2 of Fritz 12 and Rybka Aquarium.  In Game #2, Rybka had White and Fritz had Back.  The result was Fritz won.





The Match Score after 2 games is:
Fritz 12: 2
Rybka Aquarium: 0

Fritz 12 vs Rybka Aquarium (Game #1)

I happen to have both Fritz 12 and Rybka Aquarium, so I decided to have them play each other at 1 minute per move.  Fritz 12 had White, and the result was that Fritz 12 won.  I'm not saying that Fritz 12 is better, and I think that I need to run a series of 12 to 20 games to determine the best chess engine.

Magnus Carlson vs. The World

Well, I had the day off and I decided--not that anyone had to twist my arm--to participate in Magnus Carlson vs. the World.

Magnus played White and after each move 3 grandmasters--Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura and Judit Polgar--separately recommended moves for Black moves on which the world voted.  Magnus won after 44 moves.

On move #2, I was already at odds with the World when they voted for g6 and I wanted e6 (The game started 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6).  The commentary from Maurice Ashley and Garry Kasparov was great.  It was also a great chess lesson is seeing a top grandmaster dismantle our position and hearing grandmasters comment on the position and moves.

Click here to see Judit Polgar's comments

World's Top 10 Players

World's Top 10 Rated Players (updated August 29, 2010)
Rank Name            Rating
01     Carlsen        2826
02     Topalov        2803
03     Anand        2800
04     Aronian        2783
05     Kramnik        2780
06     Eljanov        2760
07     Grischuk        2760
08     Mamedyarov 2755
09     Ivanchuk        2754
10     Gelfand        2750

Mega Chess Book Database

Here is a link to DB Books (a mega chess book database).  It must contain hundreds of chess books.