July 16th, 1999: Viswanathan Anand tops World Ratings in Rapid Chess

NIIT Brand Ambassador Anand crosses 2800 mark

Anand scored a high ELO rating of 2840 in the rapid list. Thus being the first person to cross the magical 2800 mark in rapid chess. The World Top 10 Rapid Chess Ratings are as below.

  1. V Anand (Ind) 2840
  2. V Kramnik (Rus) 2760
  3. B Gelfand(Isr) 2730
  4. A Shirov (Esp) 2720
  5. P Svidler (Rus) 2720
  6. A Karpov (Rus)2700
  7. V Topalov (Bul) 2700
  8. V Ivanchuk (Ukr) 2690
  9. L Van Wely (Ned)2650
  10. U Anderson (Swe) 2630.

The list has featured over 1000 players who have participated in 30 minute events. 11 events have been rated in the list. World No. 2 in classical chess Anand is often called "Speedy Gonzales" for his lightning play.

Anand who is at present playing in Dortmund expressed his happiness. " I am happy about the release of a new rating list for rapid chess. Being rated Number 1 is really nice. I hope to achieve this in the other rating list too."