Anand is highest ranked active player in the world - Article courtesy THE HINDU

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Viswanathan Anand is now the highest-rated active chess player in the world. After holding the honour jointly with Veselin Topalov since July, Anand now finds himself ahead even without playing a single rating game in the last three months.
The change occurred after the Bulgarian lost six rating points to slip to 2782 while the Indian stayed at 2788.

The latest list released by FIDE, the world chess federation, on Saturday shows that there has been only a minor change in the world's top-10 in the last three months. In the list headed by now-retired Gary Kasparov, fellow-Russians Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Svidler have traded places to become sixth and seventh, respectively.

Topalov, who lost six points at Dortmund, is not the only loser in the top-10 list. Peter Leko (-14), Vassily Ivanchuk (-4) and Etienne Bacrot (-4) are the others.

From India's point of view, there is plenty to cheer about. For the first time, three players are in the top-40 bracket. P. Hari Krishna, with a gain of 28 points, jumped to the 31st spot with a career-high rating of 2673. In the July list, Hari was 59th with 2645 points.

Sasikiran, who had to vacate the second spot to Hari in the Indian list, gained 11 points to reach 2663 and move from the 52nd to the 40th spot.

K. Humpy and S. Vijayalakshmi also recorded their career-best ratings in the latest list. Humpy, with a previous best was 2539 in January 2002, gained nine points to reach 2540.

Vijayalakshmi amassed 72 points from 49 games to tally 2486. Her previous high was 2444 in January last year. In the world's women's list, Humpy is fourth and Vijayalakshmi, 12th.
In the world junior list, Humpy remains the top-ranked girl while Hari is third among the boys.
Meanwhile, GM-elect P. Magesh Chandran finds himself four points short of gaining the stipulating of 2500 for the confirmation of his GM title.

Double GM-norm holder Neelotpal Das broke the 2500-point barrier by touching 2509. However, National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly was the biggest loser among the elite Indian players. He lost 34 points and slipped to 2562.

The lists:
World (top-10): 1. Garry Kasparov (Rus, 2812), 2. V. Anand (Ind, 2788), 3. Veselin Topalov (Bul, 2782), 4. Peter Leko (Hun, 2751), 5. Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 2748), 6. Peter Svidler (Rus, 2740), 7. Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 2739), 8. Judit Polgar (Hun, 2735), 9. Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 2725), 10. Levon Aronian (Arm, 2724).

India (top-10): 1. Viswanthan Anand (2788), 2. P. Hari Krishna (2673), 3. K. Sasikiran (2663), 4. Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2562), 5. Sandipan Chanda (2560), 6. Abhijit Kunte (2553), 7. K. Humpy (2540), 8. Neelotpal Das (2509), 9. S. Kidmabi (2497), 10. P. Magesh Chandran (2496).