I'm not sure why they don't wait to rate the many games being played right now, but FIDE has released the January 2005 rating list. As expected, Kasparov's +5 performance at the Russian Championship allowed him to stay above the 2800 level, if barely. That Anand has had such an incredible two years and is still below that mark is testimony to how hard it is to achieve, even with rating inflation. (Not just mathematical, but how there are so many more 2700s than a decade ago. To score a 2800 performance against the top 10 players in 1990 required a full point more than to do so today.) Topalov moved to #3 without playing thanks to Kramnik's loss of a few points in his match with Leko.
The only new face in the top 10 is Etienne Bacrot. The French former "world's youngest GM" has shot up in the past year and comes in at #9. Certainly "top ten" has more value than the rating itself. (He only played five games, so it's more a case of others dropping.) Judit Polgar (the real #9) isn't on the list due to inactivity. She's back in action at Corus in a few weeks.
Hikaru Nakamura's tremendous performances at the US Championship and in his match with Sergey Karjakin weren't rated, so his expected jump to the top 50 didn't happen. As usual with the FIDE list, various corrections will likely be made until, oh, it's time for the next list.
Mig:
You forgot to mention about Nakamura's tremendous performance at the Western States Open where he scored 5.5 out of 6.
Also, Zsuzua Polgar is no:1 woman albeit due to Judit Polgar's inactivity.
You indicate that Judit Polgar is off the FIDE list because of inactivity. But there are about half a dozen players (e.g. Seirawan) who have played 0 games, yet remain listed in the top 100. Can you explain this?
I'm not a fan of women's lists or titles, other than for trivia. The ultimate success of "women's chess" will be its abolition! Junior lists are somewhat more interesting, although they aren't really relevant either now that most of the top juniors are in the top 100.
I believe that if you don't play at least six games in a year you are considered inactive.
mig, I don't understand your reply. Seirawan plays 0 games, Judit plays 0 games, he's listed, she's not........why?
that's zero games since last list, not the whole year.
Thanks, bradmajors...now I understand.
It's a bit interesting with the little gap that has occurred between the top-8 and the rest, 20 points is not much of course but I think it is significant and accurate in this case. Svidler has some more points to pick up from the Bundesliga while Shirov continues to score disappointing results, Ivanchuk is too inconsistent, Bacrot is hardly capable of rising much more at the moment etc.
So Topalov is third!!!
Just curious.....
When was the last time that ANYONE other than the KAK (or KKA) was on the top three?
I read somewhere that the last one was Karpov (!!!). Is it correct? Anyway, when was it?
I'm just glad that the most exciting player in a generation, the Great Alexander Morozevich is still way up there. Its clear that K and A are streets above the rest, Kramnik obviously being a flash in the pan. Hope Moro keeps on climbing and makes the 2-club a 3-club!
edu: I think it was Karpov or Ivanchuk in the January 1996 list (or was there a spring 1996 list?)
Since then it's all KAK.
I have often wondered why there aren't FIDE lists earlier than 2000 easily accessible on the web. However, Karpov was #3 in January 1997 as well according to for example http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/chess/Chess/Trivia/AlltimeList.html
What's the reason why Nakamura's games don't count? Do they violate the FIDE criteria for inclusion, or were they played too recently to make the current list?
It's interesting that someone described Kramnik as a "flash in the pan." Even allowing for the over-weighting of stale results, Kramnik is still extremely difficult to beat.
Marc: Nakamura's games in the US Ch and against Karjakin were played too late, but will be counted on the April list.
What was counted in shows here: http://www.fide.com/ratings/tourarc.phtml?codt=14&field1=2016192
marc shepherd, flash in the pan in a "best ever" context. Sure he's hard to beat, and a great player, but not in the fisher, karpov, kasparov or even anand league. a few years ago, he looked like he might make it there.
There DOES seem to be a nicely rounded off top 8 at the moment.
If only it were possible to get these guys to play a double round robin in Wijk aan Zee or Linares now. (Sponsorship should be no problem.)
This should give us a unified World Champion that nobody could complain about...