Kasparov pulls further ahead

By Our Sports Reporter

KOZHIKODE, JULY 5. Garry Kasparov of Russia has moved further ahead of his nearest rivals, fellow-Russian Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand of India, as FIDE, the world chess governing body, released its latest international rating list. He is now 36 points in front of the second-placed Kramnik.

The big news from the Indian point of view is that Koneru Humpy, the 14-year-old prodigy, who became the country's second Woman Grandmaster last month, has broken into the junior girls' top 10. The Vijayawada girl is ranked eighth among girls below the age of 20, which is truly a remarkable achievement. Chennai-based Krishnan Sasikiran has maintained his place in the junior boys' top 10, ranked at No. 6.

Kasparov is on 2838 Elo points, adding 11 more from the previous list, released in April. Kramnik has 2802 and Anand 2794, which means there is no change for either player from the last list. Another Russian, the young Alexander Morozevich is at No. 4 with 2749 and Michael Adams of England at No. 5 with 2744.

The amazing Judit Polgar (2686) came back into the men's top 20. She continues to lead the women's field, by a long mile. The Hungarian, who could claim to be the world's greatest woman ever, is 133 points ahead of the second-ranked player, Xie Jun of China, the current World champion (Polgar plays only with men and has been the women's World No. 1 since 1989).

India's strongest female player ever, S. Vijayalakshmi has dropped six places, and plenty of points, to go down to 42nd place. The Chennai girl, who had 2424 points in the April list, is currently on 2397. She is now just 10 points ahead of Humpy, who has moved from 2311 to 2287. Never has Vijayalakshmi been challenged by an Indian like this before.

The two girls are well ahead of their fellow- countrywomen, as the next best-rated Indian is Swati Ghate on 2260, followed by Anupama Gokhale (2251), Aarthie Ramaswamy (2249), Saheli Barua (2248) and S. Meenkashi (2245).

Sasikiran once again is the second best Indian player after Anand, despite losing 22 points. He is on 2589, ahead of Abhijit Kunte (2547) and 15-year-old Pendyala Harikrishna (2522). Dibyendu Barua has 2499 points, G.B. Prakash 2480, Surya Sekhar Ganguly 2464, Tejas Bakre 2462, Pravin Thipsay 2453 and Nasir Wajih 2447.

The Ukraine's Ruslan Ponomariov (2684) is the World's No. 1 junior boys' player, while the charming Viktroija Cmylite (2464) of Lithuania, who won the gold on the top board at the chess Olympiad in Istanbul last November, is the prima donna of the junior girls.

The rankings:

Men: 1. Garry Kasparov (Rus) 2838, 2. Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) 2802, 3. Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 2794, 4. Alexander Morozevich (Rus) 2749, 5. Michael Adams (Eng) 2744, 6. Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) 2731, 7. Peter Leko (Hun) 2730, 8. Evgeny Bareev (Rus) 2719, 9. Veselin Topalov (Bul) 2711, 10. Alexei Shirov (Esp) 2706, 11. Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb) 2704, 12. Boris Gelfand (Isr) 2704, 13. Ilia Smirin (Isr) 2702, 14. Alexander Khalifman (Rus) 2700, 15. Loek van Wely (Ned) 2695, 16. Kiril Georgiev (Bul) 2695, 17. Peter Svidler (Rus) 2695, 18. Anatoly Karpov (Rus) 2692, 19. Alexey Dreev (Rus) 2690, 20. Judit Polgar 2686, 21. Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) 2684, 22. Ye Jiangchuan (Chn) 2677, 23. Joel Lautier (Fra) 2675, 24. Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Geo) 2674, 25. Alexander Grischuk (Rus) 2669.

Women: 1. Judit Polgar (Hun) 2686, 2. Xie Jun (Chn) 2553, 3. Alisa Galliamova (Rus) 2547, 4. Maia Chiburdanidze (Geo) 2513, 5. Pia Cramling (Swe) 2510, 6. Wang Lei (Chn) 2509, 7. Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (Rus) 2507, 8. Wang Pin (Chn) 2504, 9. Xu Yuhua (Chn) 2502, 10. Zhu Chen (Chn) 2497, 11. Nana Ioseliani (Geo) 2497, 12. Almira Skripchenko-Lautier (Mda) 2494, 13. Qin Kanying (Chn) 2473, 14. Sofia Polgar (Hun) 2469, 15. Viktorija Cmilyte (Ltu) 2464, 16. Corina Peptan (Rom) 2460, 17. Antoneta Stefanova (Bul) 2459, 18. Alisa Maric (Yug) 2457, 19. Ketino Kachiani- Gersinka (Ger) 2453, 20. Natasa Bojkovic (Yug) 2452, 21. Tatiana Stepovaia-Dianchenko (Rus) 2451, 22. Nino Khurtsidze (Geo) 2446, 23. Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (Geo) 2446, 24. Hoang Thanh Trang (Vie) 2445, 25. Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus) 2440.

Junior boys: 1. Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) 2684, 2. Alexander Grischuk (Rus) 2669, 3. Etienne Bacrot (Fra) 2653, 4. Francisco Vallejo Pons (Esp) 2630, 5. Laurent Fressinet (Fra) 2606, 6. Krishnan Sasikiran (Ind) 2589, 7. Lenier Dominguez (Cub) 2585, 8. Lazaro Bruzon (Cub) 2573, 9. Ni Hua (Chn) 2568, 10. Levon Aronian (Arm) 2562, 11. Teimou Radjabov (Aze) 2558, 12. Baadur Jobava (Geo) 255, 13. Bu Xiangzhi (Chn) 2553, 14. Andrei Volokitin (Ukr) 2551, 15. Dmitry Jakovenko (Rus) 2551, 16. Evgeny Alekseev (Rus) 2544, 17. Pavel Smirnov (Rus) 2530, 18. Vladmir Potkin (Rus) 2530, 19. Ferenc Berkes (Hun) 2525, 20. Arkadij Naiditsch (Ger) 2524.

Junior girls: 1. Viktorija Cmilyte (Lit) 2464, 2. Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus) 2440, 3. Xu Yuanyuan (Chn) 2431, 4. Irina Krush (USA) 2421, 5. Ekaterina Korbut (Rus) 2413, 6. Yelena Dembo (Hun) 2391, 7. Tatiana Kosintseva (Rus) 2390, 8. Koneru Humpy (Ind), 2387, 9. Elisabeth Paehtz (Ger) 2383, 10. Wang Yu (Chn) 2382, 11. Ticia Gara (Hun) 2381, 12. Lilit Mkrtchian (Arm) 2376, 13. Iweta Radziewicz (Pol) 2375, 14. Zhao Xue (Chn) 2372, 15. Ekaterina Polovnikova (Rus) 2368, 16. Eva Moser (Aus) 2361, 17. Jana Jackov (Cze) 2350, 18. Regina Pokorna (Svk) 2348, 19. Irina Greabca (Mda) 2335, 20. Evgenija Ovod (Rus) 2327.

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