Rappler asks Why has chess fallen in popularity in the Philippines?, and writes:
At the first Battle of Grandmasters in 2006, Wesley So won the first prize of P200,000. But as sponsorships dried up, so did prize money. On Tuesday, June 28 Joey Antonio won and took home a first prize of P18,000.
A sorry state, indeed. The article goes on to explain how Filipino grandmasters are flying out of the country in search of greener pastures.
The FIDE Ratings List updated for July 2016 is here. Check out the top 20 in the table below.
| Rank | Name | Country | Rating | Games |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2855 | 0 |
| 2 | Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2812 | 0 |
| 3 | Caruana, Fabiano | USA | 2810 | 9 |
| 4 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | FRA | 2798 | 10 |
| 5 | Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2792 | 0 |
| 6 | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2787 | 0 |
| 7 | Giri, Anish | NED | 2785 | 9 |
| 8 | Ding, Liren | CHN | 2778 | 3 |
| 9 | Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2773 | 9 |
| 10 | Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2770 | 0 |
| 11 | So, Wesley | USA | 2770 | 0 |
| 12 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | AZE | 2764 | 12 |
| 13 | Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2761 | 0 |
| 14 | Svidler, Peter | RUS | 2759 | 0 |
| 15 | Li, Chao b | CHN | 2758 | 0 |
| 16 | Harikrishna, P. | IND | 2755 | 9 |
| 17 | Rapport, Richard | HUN | 2752 | 13 |
| 18 | Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2747 | 0 |
| 19 | Navara, David | CZE | 2745 | 19 |
| 20 | Eljanov, Pavel | UKR | 2737 | 9 |
Grandmaster Radosław Wojtaszek in an interview about Carlsen’s playing style:
I noticed that Magnus Carlsen’s playing philosophy is to make moves that are good enough rather than the best. Making the best move again and again absorbs a lot of time and energy. The genius is economical: he plays 30 good moves and two excellent ones. It works. I think that principle applies not only to chess.
The next time I hit the chess board, I’ll keep this in mind. O wait, but which one is the good move?