Viswanathan Anand became India’s first grandmaster in 1988. He held the FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000 to 2002. He became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008. He then defended his title in the World Chess Championship 2010 against Veselin Topalov and in the World Chess Championship 2012 against Boris Gelfand. In the World Chess Championship 2013 he lost to challenger Magnus Carlsen and he lost again to Carlsen in the World Chess Championship 2014.
Wesley So finished the first half of the blitz rounds of Your Next Move — Grand Chess Tour 2016 at second place with 5 points out of 9, although, tied with Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, and Hikaru Nakamura. Levon Aronian is slightly ahead at 5.5 points.
Crosstable after nine rounds of blitz games:
With three-quarters through the tournament, Carlsen is still ahead in the combined score (rapid scores are multiplied by two):
The rapid rounds are over for the Grand Chess Tour 2016: Your Next Move in Leuven, Belgium. A great performance was posted by the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, as he won all of his 4 games against three of the former world champions: Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, and Vladimir Kramnik, plus Anish Giri. In the process, he clinched the top spot with 18 rounds of blitz games to go in the tournament.
If day one of the rapid games in Leuven was full of surprises, day two was no less so, though thankfully not due to record numbers of blunders. Vishy Anand started the day with a win, but after two losses lost the lead as he was caught up by Wesley So. In the meantime, Magnus Carlsen showed he was back and managed to win the rapid phase after a fabulous 4/4.
The final crosstable of the rapid games follows:
Chess.com describes the first day of the rapid games in Your Next Move, Grand Chess Tour 2016, in Leuven, Belgium, as bluderfest:
Viswanathan Anand leads the Your Next Move Grand Chess Tour after five rounds of rapid chess. The first day of rapid saw a number of huge blunders that made the playing hall seem haunted.
That’s actually what makes the tournament more exciting and attract more spectators in the process. I guess that’s the purpose of rapid games, to bring out the human-nature in the world’s top grandmasters.
Remember, you can catch the rest of the rapid games in GCT Leuven 2016 LIVE here.
Photo credit: Grand Chess Tour.
After Day 1 of Your Next Move — Grand Chess Tour 2016 Leuven, Anand leads with half a point.
Rapid results after round 5 follows:
Surprisingly, Hikaru Nakamura, the winner of the Paris leg, is at the bottom with only 1.5 points. Wesley So, on the other hand, still coming in strong being tied at the second place.
Check out Wesley So’s win against Fabiano Caruana in Round 5.
Overall Tournament standings:
After the successful conclusion of the Grand Chess Tour Paris, with Hikaru Nakamura winning the top prize, the second leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2016, dubbed as ‘Your Next Move’, follows and the countdown is done.
Check out Your Next Move‘s promotional video below:
No doubt, the reigning world champion is still on top with 2855, up 4 points from last month. But Vladimir Kramnik, from last month’s 2801, gained 11 more ELO points to take the second spot from Fabiano Caruana for this month’s official FIDE Ratings List June 2016.
Wesley So, although lost 5 points by virtue of his game 3 loss to Ding Liren, is still at No. 10, but now tied with Vishy Anand.
Here’s the current top 20 in the world:
| Rk | Name | Fed | Rtg | Gms | B-Year |
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2855 | 9 | 1990 |
| 2 | Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2812 | 14 | 1975 |
| 3 | Caruana, Fabiano | USA | 2804 | 0 | 1992 |
| 4 | Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2792 | 9 | 1982 |
| 5 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | FRA | 2789 | 10 | 1990 |
| 6 | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2787 | 0 | 1987 |
| 7 | Ding, Liren | CHN | 2783 | 4 | 1992 |
| 8 | Giri, Anish | NED | 2782 | 9 | 1994 |
| 9 | Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2774 | 3 | 1990 |
| 10 | So, Wesley | USA | 2770 | 4 | 1993 |
| 11 | Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2770 | 0 | 1969 |
| 12 | Harikrishna, P. | IND | 2764 | 9 | 1986 |
| 13 | Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2761 | 9 | 1975 |
| 14 | Svidler, Peter | RUS | 2759 | 7 | 1976 |
| 15 | Li, Chao b | CHN | 2758 | 9 | 1989 |
| 16 | Eljanov, Pavel | UKR | 2751 | 9 | 1983 |
| 17 | Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2747 | 8 | 1983 |
| 18 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | AZE | 2746 | 9 | 1985 |
| 19 | Navara, David | CZE | 2744 | 11 | 1985 |
| 20 | Andreikin, Dmitry | RUS | 2743 | 9 | 1990 |
Chessbase lists the complete top 100 and discusses about the top climbers and descenders in the list, among others.
After defeating Wesley So in the 2016 China-USA Chess Grandmaster Summit, Chinese GM Ding Liren advanced to spots in the Live Ratings as of today, May 12th, 2016.
Apparently, that event was rated.
The updated ratings for May 2016 are out. Here’s the the top 20:
See how 80% of the Top 10 are 90’s babies, i.e., they were born in the 1990’s. It speaks volumes about the quality of computer support these kids got especially when they were starting out.
Anyway, Wesley So retains his hold onto the 10th place, ahead of two former world champions Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov.
The World Championship we are about to witness in November is between the No. 1 player Magnus Carlsen and No. 8 Sergey Karjakin. Looks like a heavily lopsided match to me, I dare say.
Check out the top 100 players here.