Wei Yi breaks Magnus Carlsen’s rating record at Tradewise Gibraltar
Leonard Barden
Friday 6 February 2015 19.47 EST
Tradewise Gibraltar has become a byword for quality fields, smooth organisation and generous prize funds, plus a fine venue at the Caleta Hotel, and its 2015 version this week maintained its high status.
Gibraltar 2015 began two days after the big Dutch event at Wijk aan Zee ended rather than overlapping with it as in previous years. China’s Hou Yifan, the world woman champion, and Wei Yi,15, the new prodigy, played the two events and both created history while sharing third prize at Gibraltar. Hou Yifan passed Judit Polgar’s rating, the first time for 26 years that the Hungarian legend has not been ranked the No1 woman, and Wei Yi reached 2700, breaking Magnus Carlsen’s record as the youngest to reach that elite rating.
Hikaru Nakamura dominated the tournament, winning his first six games and taking the £20,000 first prize with an unbeaten 8.5/10. The American’s play has been galvanised by the emergence of Wesley So, 21, who briefly usurped the US No1 spot at Wijk but lost it to Nakamura’s bravura play at Gibraltar. In round one, Naka opened with a profusion of queen moves to defeat a much weaker opponent, while in contrast he beat the world No4, Veselin Topalov, by a crafted blend of strategy and tactics.
England’s youngest grandmaster, David Howell, 23, drew with Nakamura, scored a career best 8/10 in second place and kept up his push towards a 2700 elite rating. Given their 19-year age difference, Howell can soon become a real threat to Michael Adams’s long standing UK No1 status.
Full article here.
Wesley So has more talent on his pinky than Wei Yi.
Its rating inflation, not new records.
You are correct
Some clever mathematicians should analyze the rating formula and derive “CPIs” to bring all past and present ratings to common terms.