In this list, 2 players made a major move to break the 2500 mark for the first time. They are Tatiana Kosintseva and Anna Ushenina. Zhao Xue is also back to 2500. Irina Krush is the top active American female player at #14. Judit of course stays at #1.
1 Polgar, Judit g HUN 2707
2 Koneru, Humpy g IND 2572
3 Cramling, Pia g SWE 2533
4 Hou, Yifan wg CHN 2523
5 Zhu, Chen g QAT 2522
6 Kosteniuk, Alexandra g RUS 2515
7 Kosintseva, Tatiana m RUS 2502
8 Ushenina, Anna m UKR 2502
9 Zhao, Xue wg CHN 2500
10 Chiburdanidze, Maia g GEO 2496
11 Sebag, Marie m FRA 2491
12 Stefanova, Antoaneta g BUL 2481
13 Socko, Monika m POL 2479
14 Krush, Irina m USA 2479
15 Harika, Dronavalli m IND 2478
Source: FIDE
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
What is the big difference between Judit and the rest? Why can’t any girl catch up with her? What’s the big secret? Thank you.
She works harder than all of them. No big secret.
Best wishes,
Susan Polgar
Kramnik sais Judith has a real fighting spirit: patience and nerve that no other woman in chess has.
Judit may be the best woman player but with 2 children and a homelife she has no chance at The mens World Title.
Well, looking at the list, I wouldn’t be too sure that nobody is able to catch up with Judit. If Hou Yifan keeps rising like that (she is only thirteen, after all), we might have a second woman contending for world championship titles in a few years.
Congratulations to Tatiana! Does anyone know how many GM norms she has?
Perhaps in the coming decade Hou Yifan and Koneru Humpy could potentially catch up and/or surpass Judit Polgar.
Whether or not she becomes World Champion in the future Judit is a real role model and worthy of a great deal of respect. If the difference in women’s chess and men’s chess is 50 years (in terms of training and development of players) then Judit is certainly half a century ahead of her time.
Hans Ree wrote (ChessCafe.com, Dutch Treat June 27):
{
A few weeks ago, on the 8th of June, the Dutch WGM Fenny Heemskerk died at the age of 87.
… Prins proved to be an excellent assistant.
She played well in that [1952]tournament, so well that the Russians got worried and thought of a way to stop her. …
Luckily Prins was also present in the hotel room and he proved his worth as a second. Like a true knight he made it clear that Fenny would only be taken away over his dead body. The attempt of kidnapping her did not succeed.
At the end she shared second place with the Russian Olga Ignatieva. First place was for Elizaveta Bykova, who would go on to win the match against Rudenko and become world champion.
}
And Bobby Fischer felt he had big problems from Soviet treachery!
Fenny must have felt it was deja vu all over again when the Soviet’s used their evil influence in FIDE raise the ratings of all women except Susan.
GeneM