Interesting details about the new rating list

The top 100 FIDE rating April list is out. Veselin Topalov retains the top spot after his strong performance in the Nanjing tournament and the Chess Challenger match against Gata Kamsky. The World Champion Vishy Anand is second with 2783, while Carlsen is third with 2770. As predicted in the April list preview, general rating drops among the other players over 2750 and the rise of players above 2700 make the race for the rest of the positions in the top 10 very tight. The difference between the 4th Vladimir Kramnik and the 20th Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is only 34 points, leaving the battle for the top positions wide open.

The average rating of the players in the top 100 has increased by 1 ELO point. That certainly is due to the players in positions 25 – 75, as well as to the new entrants in the list. A clear indication of that is GM Anatoly Karpov, who despite his inactivity in the period, climbs from position 90 to position 86.

The April FIDE top 100 list has a new youngest member. This is GM Wesley So, who entered at position 89 with 2641 points.

Another 2 young players make striking performance as well. GM Arman Pashikian, the new Armenia champion, has played 43 games to gain 34 points and appear on position 71 with 2655. GM Li Chao B played 46 games, making him the most active player in the period, and he climbed to position 87.

The highest new entrant is GM Igor Kurnosov, who enters the list for the first time directly at position 67. After 38 games he has gained the stunning 56 points and is currently rated 2658.

Here is the top 100 FIDE rating April list.

1 Topalov, Veselin BUL 2812

2 Anand, Viswanathan IND 2783

3 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2770

4 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2759

5 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2756

6 Aronian, Levon ARM 2754

7 Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2753

8 Morozevich, Alexander RUS 2751

9 Leko, Peter HUN 2751

10 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2748

11 Movsesian, Sergei SVK 2747

12 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2746

13 Shirov, Alexei ESP 2745

14 Wang, Yue CHN 2738

15 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2733

16 Gashimov, Vugar AZE 2730

17 Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2728

18 Svidler, Peter RUS 2726

19 Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2726

20 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2725

21 Ni, Hua CHN 2724

22 Dominguez Perez, Leinier CUB 2721

23 Karjakin, Sergey UKR 2721

24 Kamsky, Gata USA 2720

25 Alekseev, Evgeny RUS 2716

26 Malakhov, Vladimir RUS 2709

27 Bu, Xiangzhi CHN 2704

28 Adams, Michael ENG 2703

29 Rublevsky, Sergei RUS 2702

30 Nakamura, Hikaru USA 2701

31 Naiditsch, Arkadij GER 2700

32 Tiviakov, Sergei NED 2697

33 Wang, Hao CHN 2696

34 Akopian, Vladimir ARM 2696

35 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam UZB 2695

36 Eljanov, Pavel UKR 2693

37 Polgar, Judit HUN 2693

38 Moiseenko, Alexander UKR 2690

39 Bologan, Viktor MDA 2690

40 Vallejo Pons, Francisco ESP 2688

41 Vitiugov, Nikita RUS 2688

42 Jobava, Baadur GEO 2687

43 Harikrishna, P. IND 2686

44 Almasi, Zoltan HUN 2685

45 Onischuk, Alexander USA 2684

46 Tomashevsky, Evgeny RUS 2684

47 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime FRA 2684

48 Sasikiran, Krishnan IND 2682

49 Efimenko, Zahar UKR 2682

50 Miroshnichenko, Evgenij UKR 2680

51 Cheparinov, Ivan BUL 2678

52 Motylev, Alexander RUS 2677

53 Timofeev, Artyom RUS 2677

54 Inarkiev, Ernesto RUS 2676

55 Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter ROU 2675

56 Short, Nigel D ENG 2674

57 Volokitin, Andrei UKR 2671

58 Sokolov, Ivan NED 2669

59 Najer, Evgeniy RUS 2669

60 Dreev, Alexey RUS 2668

61 Nielsen, Peter Heine DEN 2668

62 Fressinet, Laurent FRA 2664

63 Sargissian, Gabriel ARM 2660

64 Sutovsky, Emil ISR 2660

65 Guseinov, Gadir AZE 2659

66 Milov, Vadim SUI 2659

67 Kurnosov, Igor RUS 2658

68 Areshchenko, Alexander UKR 2657

69 Tkachiev, Vladislav FRA 2657

70 Fedorchuk, Sergey A. UKR 2656

71 Pashikian, Arman ARM 2655

72 Savchenko, Boris RUS 2655

73 Nyback, Tomi FIN 2655

74 Navara, David CZE 2654

75 Grachev, Boris RUS 2652

76 Predojevic, Borki BIH 2652

77 Lastin, Alexander RUS 2650

78 Caruana, Fabiano ITA 2649

79 Amonatov, Farrukh TJK 2648

80 Postny, Evgeny ISR 2648

81 Delchev, Aleksander BUL 2648

82 Avrukh, Boris ISR 2647

83 Fridman, Daniel GER 2646

84 Kobalia, Mikhail RUS 2645

85 Mamedov, Rauf AZE 2645

86 Karpov, Anatoly RUS 2644

87 Li, Chao b CHN 2643

88 Meier, Georg GER 2641

89 So, Wesley PHI 2641

90 Smirin, Ilia ISR 2641

91 Beliavsky, Alexander SLO 2640

92 Berkes, Ferenc HUN 2638

93 Zhang, Pengxiang CHN 2638

94 Georgiev, Kiril BUL 2637

95 Socko, Bartosz POL 2637

96 Bareev, Evgeny RUS 2636

97 Zhou, Jianchao CHN 2635

98 Riazantsev, Alexander RUS 2635

99 Zvjaginsev, Vadim RUS 2635

100 Roiz, Michael ISR 2635