Love him, hate him, or sue him, but you've got to give up the major props to Garry Kasparov the chessplayer. The new FIDE rating list is out and Kasparov added nine points to his lead over Kramnik and is now at 2847. His record three years ago was 2851. Kramnik played exactly one rated game in 2002, making him the least active champ since Botvinnik took a few years off to get his PhD.
Judit Polgar hit 2700 for the first time, but it's been a while since that once-magical number meant top-10 status. She's at 13-14 tied with Gelfand. (She once hit #11 if memory serves.) Crowd favorite Morozevich plummeted out of the top 20, Grischuk made the top 10. Onischuk is now USA and is number 35 at 2658, the highest American. ChessBase has a report here. Official FIDE site here.
