FIDE 2700+ List

1 Kasparov, Garry g RUS 2804
2 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2786
3 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2757
[Topalov replaced Kramnik in the Top Three, to become the first new name there in ten years (since Kramnik bumped Karpov in 1995).]
4 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2754
5 Leko, Peter g HUN 2749
6 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2741
7 Adams, Michael g ENG 2741
8 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2735
[Judit Polgar is rated 2728 but was not included because she played no games in 2004.]
9 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2715
10 Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2713
11 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2711
12 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2710
13 Bareev, Evgeny g RUS 2709
14 Dreev, Alexey g RUS 2704
15 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2700

The full top 100 list is available at http://www.fide.com/ratings/topstat.phtml. Some observations:

• Karpov continues his steady decline down the list, down 8 points and 6 slots at #29 (2674).
• After a 1.5-year absence, Kortchnoi returns to the top 100 list (#90) as well as the 2600+ club (2617). Not bad at all. And for a man his age (73), downright remarkable. He displaces Karpov (53) as the oldest man in the top 100. I wonder if on his way up he will pass Karpov (on his way down)?
• The top rated USA player is Alexander Onischuk at #47 (2652). [Kamsky is rated higher but is not on the list because he is inactive.]