By IANS
New Delhi : Vladimir Kramnik made big gains but Viswanathan Anand managed to hang in with joint lead in the world ratings Jan 1, 2008 list. Anand, who lost two points from his previous 2,801 is now 2,799, while Kramnik gained 14 points to move from 2,785 to 2,799.
Since Kramnik played nine rating games as opposed to three by Anand he gets to occupy the top of the rankings.
In the women’s section Judit Polgar stays on the top, but Koneru Humpy reduced the margin for the first to under 100 points. Humpy reduced the lead by seven points to 95.
India’s Krishnan Sasikiran is now back No. 2 among Indians. He gained 16 points and moved to 2,677 and went up from 49th to 39th. Pentala Harikrishna dropped four points from 2,668 to 2,668, but dropped from 45th in the world to 52nd.
While there are only two men in top-50, there are four Indians in women’s top-50 with Koneru Humpy (2,612) leading the way in second place. The others are S. Vijayalakshmi (2,464) in 25th place, down from 20th, Dronavalli Harika (2,455) dropped sharply from 12th to 33th losing a huge 35 points and Tania Sachdev (2,417) is 48th losing two places from previous 46th.
In the men’s section Vesselin Topalov (2,780) is third, while Vassily Ivanchuk (2,751) has dropped to ninth place after losing 36 points.
Former FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov gained 11 points to move up from rank four to rank three. And Vassily Ivanchuk, who in the previous list had occupied second place with 2,787 rating points, lost 36 points to drop to place nine.
Alexander Morozevich gained 10 points to move from place six to place four. Peter Svidler added 31 points to his rating to move from place 12 to place five.
In other notable features, Alexei Shirov (2,755) gained 16 points to move from 10th to 7th, while Magnus Carlsen (2,733) gained 19 points to move from 16 to place 13. Gata Kamsky (2,726) gained 12 to move from 17 to 15, while one of the biggest mover was for Ivan Cheparinov (2,719) who gained 43 to move from place 42 to place 19.
Former Women’s World Champion Xie Jun (2,574) is back on the list and in third place. But she is still 38 points behind second placed Humpy. Behind another World Champion, Zhu Chen, who is fourth at 2,548, there is the 13-year-old Hou Yifan (2,527), the prodigy sensation from China. She had dropped to place eight in the previous list.