Sunday, April 01, 2007

April 2007 Rating List

The final list, after inclusion of Morelia/Linares...

Rnk Name Title Country Rating Games B-Year
1 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2786 27 1969
2 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2772 27 1975
3 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2772 13 1975
4 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2762 21 1977
5 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2759 27 1982
6 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2757 3 1985
7 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2747 13 1987
8 Leko, Peter g HUN 2738 14 1979
9 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2736 27 1976
10 Adams, Michael g ENG 2734 1 1971
11 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2733 0 1968
12 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2729 24 1969
13 Polgar, Judit g HUN 2727 0 1976
14 Navara, David g CZE 2720 19 1985
15 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2717 13 1983
16 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2717 0 1983
17 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2709 3 1983
18 Jakovenko, Dmitry g RUS 2708 32 1983
19 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2705 0 1974
20 Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2699 20 1972

The original list...

Rnk Name Country Rating Games B-Year
1 Topalov, Veselin BUL 2791 13 1975
2 Anand, Viswanathan IND 2778 13 1969
3 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2772 13 1975
4 Aronian, Levon ARM 2759 13 1982
5 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2757 3 1985
6 Morozevich, Alexander RUS 2756 7 1977
7 Leko, Peter HUN 2749 0 1979
8 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2747 13 1987
9 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2735 10 1969
10 Adams, Michael ENG 2734 1 1971
11 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2733 0 1968
12 Svidler, Peter RUS 2731 13 1976
13 Polgar, Judit HUN 2727 0 1976
14 Navara, David CZE 2720 19 1985
15 Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2717 13 1983
16 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2717 0 1983
17 Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2709 3 1983
18 Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2708 32 1983
19 Kamsky, Gata USA 2705 0 1974
20 Akopian, Vladimir
ARM
2703 18
1971

It was a surprise to me that Viswanathan Anand is not in the number one slot – it is still Veselin Topalov, 13 points ahead of Anand. Apparently the Linares tournament, which Anand won, was not included. The Indian Chess Federation has protested. According to calculations made by chess experts all over the world Anand should have been in the number one spot, after his superb win in Morelia/Linares (where Topalov, at the same time, shed a number of rating points.

The final games in Linares were played on March 10th, 2007, and thus the tournament could be considered ineligible for the calculations of the April list, since the deadline for submissions of tournaments for the April ratings is Feburary 28. However, in the past FIDE has always included this key tournament in its April list. This is certainly true of the April lists for 2006 (Linares finished on March 11); 2005 (finished on March 11); and for the previous years 2004, 2003 and 2002. That is as far as we have easily accessible records on the subject. Colleagues in India tell us that the practice of including Linares goes back to when the April list was first introduced.

So why was Linares excluded this time? FIDE Presidential Board member Nigel Freeman has posted a statement on the subject: "Before the conspiracy theories get out of hand, perhaps I can explain what happened to the best of my knowledge. With regards to Morelia-Linares, in order to be completely fair, the Ratings Committee has decided that only tournaments that finished a month before the rating list comes into effect should be rated. Once one starts to make exceptions, where does one stop? Why Morelia-Linares and not a whole host of others?"

Two points can be made here: Why, then, was Linares included in the calculations of all previous April lists? When was a change in the practical application of the guidlines for the ratings decided? Was it announced before Morelia/Linares, or did the decision come after the event had been completed? And secondly: if we are not mistaken the 2007 Asian Cities Chess Championship in Tehran, which was held entirely in March (from 1st to 9th) was included in the tournaments used to calculate the April 2007 list. At least three other events that spilled into March were used in the calculations.