FIDE rating list
By Bobby Ang
Friday, July 10, 2009 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
The World Chess Federation, known under its chess acronym of Federacion Internationale des Echecs, or FIDE, has just released its July 2009 rating list. Here is the new world top 10 players:
1. GM Veselin Topalov BUL 2813
2. GM Viswanathan Anand IND 2788
3. GM Magnus Carlsen NOR 2772
4. GM Levon Aronian ARM 2768
5. GM Dmitry Jakovenko RUS 2760
6. GM Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2759
7. GM Peter Leko HUN 2756
8. GM Teimour Radjabov AZE 2756
9. GM Boris Gelfand ISR 2755
10. GM Alexander Morozevich RUS 2751
No, we don’t have a new world champion. Topalov is the highest rated player, but Anand is, of course, still the reigning world champion. It is not uncommon that the world champion is not the most high-rated. For example, at the time of the 1972 Match of the Century between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, the American player was much higher-rated than Spassky. In fact, Spassky actually gained rating points when he lost 8.5-12.5 (seven losses, three wins and 11 draws).
Please don’t ask me if Botvinnik was the highest rated player in the ’50s, or how Petrosian ranked against his contemporaries when he was world champion. The rating system came into use much later. In 1959 the US Chess Federation named Dr. Arpad Elo as the head of a committee to examine all rating systems and make recommendations. The numerical rating system he developed was adopted by the Federation in 1962 and called the Elo system (what else?). It was published in the June 1961 issue of Chess Life. If you, like me, are an absolute chess fanatic and happen to have a copy of that lying around, you will read that “It is expected that articles on the new basis of the rating system will shortly appear in international scientific journals. Dr. Max Euwe, after studying the new system, wrote he was most happy that a full scientific study of the problem had finally been made, and that he was forwarding a report in full to FIDE. Members of the Rating System Committee are Arpad Elo, Dr. Erich Marchand, and Guthrie McClain. Elo, the chairman is Professor of Physics at Marquette University in Milwaukee, and seven-time state chess champion of Wisconsin, first in 1935, and most recently in 1961”.
The wheels of bureaucracy grind very slowly, and it was only in 1970, when Euwe became FIDE president, that the Elo system was officially adopted by FIDE. Apparently, the European players, where the old system gave them great advantage and plenty of titles, opposed this change most bitterly.
…The first published FIDE rating list, in 1970, lists the following top seven players:
1. GM Robert James Fischer USA 2720
2-3. GM Boris Spassky URS, GM Viktor Korchnoi URS, 2670
4-5. GM Efim Geller URS, GM Paul Keres URS 2660
6-7. GM Bent Larsen DEN, GM Tigran Petrosian URs, 2650
Yeah, right. Petrosian is no. 7 with 2650, while currently Wesley So is no. 92 with 2646. Well, that is ratings inflation, but that discussion will have to be reserved for a future column.
Here is the full article.
Okla. Baby Born At 12:34:56 On 7/8/09
http://www.koco.com/cnn-news/19998844/detail.html
In fact, Spassky actually gained rating points when he lost 8.5-12.5 (seven losses, three wins and 11 draws).
To be mindlessly nitpicky, for rating purposes, Spassky was +2 =11 -7, since game 2 was a default by Fischer.
Who’s this joker?
So does that mean Topalov = Fischer and Anand = Spassky ?
Today’s FIDE rating formula is no longer the same as Elo’s. Some basic assumptions have been revised (e.g. Elo assumed that a player’s skill follows a normal distribution). Thus, the article’s comparison of Petrosian’s and Wesley So’s ratings is baseless, and this is not just because of inflation.
Another blunder: The full article says Gashimov is the best Azeri player, completely forgetting Radjabov.
When you write an article that purports to be an “expert” commentary, be sure you’re really an expert.
Actually FIDE’s rating formula is still the same as ELO’s as the FIDE rating regulations quite clearly state that it uses a published table based on the normal curve and not the logistic formula.
The USCF uses the logistic formula.