July FIDE rating list
Inflation of top men ratings, deflation of top women ratings
The July FIDE rating list has been made official by the World Chess Federation. As expected, after the good performance in Bazna, Magnus Carlsen is number one rated player in the world. The top female player is Judith Polgar, as it has been for a total of 48 lists. On the first spot in the junior rating list joins Le Quang Liem after gaining valuable 19 points at Capablanca Memorial, while Yifan Hou is top girl, and also appears on 19th position in the junior rating list.
How the ratings looked 1 year ago
Top 100 rating inflation
The world’s top 10 has undergone some substantial changes. Besides Carlsen substituting Anand on the first spot, Sergey Karjakin has become the number one Russian player. Ruslan Ponomariov has wings and reaches the 7th position, while Topalov, Nakamura, and Mamedyarov take the last positions in the top 10.
The players in top 10 will soon have the chance to decide everything over the board, as minimum five of the top six meet in Bilbao Grand Slam Final Masters 2011
The 2700 club has increased once more, with 42 players present. This reflects the general rating inflation of the top players in this period – after a stagnation period and average ELO rise of only 2 points (from 2695 in September 2010 to 2697 in May 2011), now we see the same amount added to the period of July. Thus, the current top 100 ELO average is 2699, just a point away from the psychological 2700.
Yu Yangi is a new entry to the top 100, jumping directly to position 71 with 33 ELO gain and rating of 2672. At positions 92-99 we find the other new entrants – Robert Markus (SRB), Yuriy Kryvoruchko (UKR), and Constantin Lupulescu (ROU).
The biggest rating loss in top 100 was Radoslaw Wojtaszek (38 points), while the biggest rating gain was Alexander Moiseenko (36 points).
Women ratings deflation
In the women’s rating list a counter process is going on – ratings are undergoing a stagnation compared to 2009, and a deflation compared to 2010. The current top 100 average is 2438, the same number as in April 2009 and 5 points less than in March 2010.
The women players above 2500 points also decrease from 17 to 16.
The same process is seen in the girl’s ratings, where despite the high instability, on average they have been decreasing in the last rating lists. The major news here is the appearance of Yifan Hou both on the girls and juniors top rating lists.
July top players (0ver 2700)
1 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2821
2 Anand, Viswanathan IND 2817
3 Aronian, Levon ARM 2805
4 Karjakin, Sergey RUS 2788
5 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2781
6 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2768
7 Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2768
8 Topalov, Veselin BUL 2768
9 Nakamura, Hikaru USA 2766
10 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2765
11 Gashimov, Vugar AZE 2760
12 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2746
13 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2746
14 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2744
15 Kamsky, Gata USA 2741
16 Svidler, Peter RUS 2739
17 Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2736
18 Vitiugov, Nikita RUS 2733
19 Almasi, Zoltan HUN 2726
20 Vallejo Pons, Francisco ESP 2724
21 Navara, David CZE 2722
22 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime FRA 2722
23 Dominguez Perez, Leinier CUB 2719
24 Wang, Hao CHN 2718
25 Leko, Peter HUN 2717
26 Moiseenko, Alexander UKR 2715
27 Le, Quang Liem VIE 2715
28 Adams, Michael ENG 2715
29 Shirov, Alexei ESP 2714
30 Jobava, Baadur GEO 2713
31 Dreev, Aleksey RUS 2711
32 Caruana, Fabiano ITA 2711
33 Nepomniachtchi, Ian RUS 2711
34 Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2710
35 Wang, Yue CHN 2709
36 Tomashevsky, Evgeny RUS 2707
37 Naiditsch, Arkadij GER 2706
38 Efimenko, Zahar UKR 2706
39 Malakhov, Vladimir RUS 2706
40 Giri, Anish NED 2701
41 Sutovsky, Emil ISR 2700
42 Movsesian, Sergei ARM 2700
43 Polgar, Judit HUN 2699
July top women (over 2500)
1 Polgar, Judit HUN 2699
2 Koneru, Humpy IND 2614
3 Hou, Yifan CHN 2575
4 Kosintseva, Nadezhda RUS 2560
5 Kosintseva, Tatiana RUS 2557
6 Muzychuk, Anna SLO 2538
7 Dzagnidze, Nana GEO 2537
8 Lahno, Kateryna UKR 2536
9 Cmilyte, Viktorija LTU 2528
10 Stefanova, Antoaneta BUL 2524
11 Zatonskih, Anna USA 2522
12 Danielian, Elina ARM 2521
13 Ju, Wenjun CHN 2515
14 Harika, Dronavalli IND 2513
15 Sebag, Marie FRA 2510
16 Chiburdanidze, Maia GEO 2500
I find it hard to imagine how women ratings could deflate while mens’ would inflate. If women play men regularly then the ratings will mix and they will be in the very same pool.
Inflation is when everyone is higher than they would be before. So for example 2800 today might be the same as 2750 back in Fischer’s time.