Date:02/04/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/04/02/stories/2003040203061800.htm

Sport - Chess

Titles for Ganguly, Arthie confirmed

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 1. Surya Sekhar Ganguly has been confirmed as the eighth Grandmaster from the country by FIDE, the governing body of chess in the world.

With the release of the latest rating list on Tuesday, Ganguly has joined the `GM Club' that has Viswanathan Anand, Dibyendu Barua, Pravin Thipsay, Abhijit Kunte, K. Sasikiran, P. Hari Krishna and Koneru Humpy. It may be recalled that Ganguly had met the GM-title requirements during the Chess Olympiad last year.

Similarly, Aarthie Ramaswamy's Woman Grandmaster title also stands confirmed. She becomes the third WGM in the country after S. Vijayalakshmi and Humpy. She had completed the technical requirements for the WGM title in Hungary in December last.

Anand retained his third place in the world list with a rating of 2764, behind Gary Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik. Unlike Anand, who gained 11 points in the last three months, Kasparov (2830) lost 17 and Kramnik (2789) 20. It was also the first time since July 2001 that Kramnik' rating fell below the 2800-mark.

Sasikiran (2658) lost six points from the previous list released in January and slipped four places to be 36th in the world.

In the women's list headed by Hungarian GM Judit Polgar (2715), Humpy (2496) was fifth and Vijayalakshmi (2414), 42nd. Judit has also broken into the top-10 ranking in the world.

Youngest rated Indian

Meanwhile, Sahaj Grover has become the youngest Indian in the rating list. The Delhi-based National under-7 champion replaces Chennai's N. Srinath for the honour. Born on September 7, 1995, Sahaj has earned rating of 1944.

Despite his tender age, Sahaj had come up with a splendid show in the Rajiv Gandhi memorial rating chess tournament here in February. Currently coached by former National junior champion Gurpreet Pal Singh, V. S. Negi and Harish Sharma, Sahaj is the second Delhi-boy to become the youngest rated in the country after Parimarjan Negi gained the honour last year.

However, it could not be confirmed whether Sahaj was indeed the youngest in the world to make the rating list. When contacted, the All India Chess Federation secretary P. T. Ummer Koya, who is also the FIDE Vice-President, said FIDE did not maintain any such record as the youngest rated player.

World top-10: men: 1. Gary Kasparov (Rus) 2830, 2. Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) 2789, 3. Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 2764, 4. Peter Leko (Hun) 2746, 5. Alexei Shirov (Esp) 2735, 6. Veselin Topalov (Bul) 2735, 7. Evgeny Bareev (Rus) 2734, 8. Michael Adams (Eng) 2723, 9. Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) 2718, 10. Judit Polgar (Hun) 2715.

Women: 1. Judit Polgar (Hun) 2715, 2. Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul) 2550, 3. Almira Skripchenko (Fra) 2501, 4. Maia Chiburdanidze (Geo) 2497, 5. Koneru Humpy (Ind) 2496, 6. Zhu Chen (Chn) 2492, 7. Alisa Galliamova (Rus) 2489, 8. Xu Yuhua (Chn) 2489, 9. Wang Lie (Chn) 2484, 10. Nana Ioseliani (Geo) 2475.

India top-50: 1. Viswanathan Anand (2764), 2. K. Sasikiran (2658), 3. P. Hari Krishna (2563), 4. Dibyendu Barua (2545), 5. Surya Sekhar Ganguly (2542), 6. Abhijit Kunte (2499), 7. Koneru Humpy (2496), 8. Sandipan Chanda (2478), 9. Tejas Bakre (2471), 10. Neelotpal Das (2468), 11. Pravin Thipsay (2463), 12. Sriram Jha (2451), 13. R. B. Ramesh (2444), 14. S. Kidambi (2440), 15. G. B. Prakash (2431), 16. Lanka Ravi (2427), 17. S. Satyapragyan (2424), 18. Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (2422), 19. Mahesh Chandran (2419), 20. S. Vijayalakshmi (2414), 21. Roktim Bandhodhyay (2405), 22. D. V. Prasad (2400), 23. B. S. Sivanandan (2396), 24. M. R. Venkatesh (2391), 25. Suvrajit Saha (2391), 26. K. Ratnakaran (2390), 27. K. Murugan (2390), 28. Rahul Shetty (2387), 29. Dinesh Kumar Sharma (2384), 30. Chandrashekhar Gokhale (2382), 31. Raja Ravishekhar (2380), 32. Deepan Chakkravarthy (2379), 33. T. N. Parmeswaran (2360), 34. Vishal Sareen (2358), 35. V. Saravanan (2358), 36. G. Rohit (2357), 37. Ravi Hedge (2354), 38. N. Sudhakar Babu (2353), 39. Preetham Sharma (2352), 40. Arvind Shastry (2351), 41. V. Ravikumar (2350), 42. T. S. Ravi (2348), 43. Aarthie Ramaswamy (2348), 44. Nassir Wajih (2345), 45. A. Pavanasam (2345), 46. Neeraj Kumar Mishra (2343), 47. Prathamesh Mokal (2341), 48. Satchidanand Soman (2340), 49. R. Nagendra (2340), 50. N. R. Anil Kumar (2340).