GOOD PERFORMANCE AT OLYMPIAD
Damian Norris, left, of Fiji, did good performance in the previous Olympiad to get a FIDE rating of 2142. He struggled to regain his form during the 2009 Oceania Zonal Chess Championship in Australia losing to youngsters Alexander Stahnke, right, and Daniel Lapitan. He finished at 68th spot. Palau sole representative Roberto Hernandez finished 2 steps higher than him. Malcolm Pyke, 2nd from right, lost to George Lester in their 1st round encounter. Pyke withdrew from the tourney in the 6th round while Lester finished at 51st place. (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)
TOP 10 COUNTRIES IN WORLD
CHESS OLYMPIAD
THE HOST country of 2010 World Chess Olympiad is the top seed among 170 FIDE member countries.
Russia, who won more Olympiad titles than any other countries, boasts their top 100 players with the highest rated Vladimir Kramnik at the top with 2790 FIDE rating. At 100th is Andrei Kartov (2522).
Alexander Grischuk (2760), 20-year old Sergey Karjakin (2747), Peter Svidler (2734), Vladimir Malakhov (2732), Dmitry Jakovenko (2726), Alexander Morozevich (2715), Evgeny Tomashevsky (2708) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (2706) completed the formidable top 10.
It's interesting to know that 94 in their top 100 players are Grandmasters (GM), 5 are International Masters (IM) and one is FIDE Master (FM)-Roman V. Nechepurenko, whose 2546 rating is higher than many GMs and IMs.
Former champion and a candidate for FIDE presidency Anatoly Karpov is listed at no. 34 with 2619 rating. His adversary is incumbent Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who has been at the helm of FIDE for 15 years.
The election will be held during the last days of the 2010 World Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia on Sept. 19 (Arrival) to October 04, 2010 (Departure).
Ukraine, the 2004 titlist, is seeded 2nd. Its top 10 players are Pavel Etianov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomariov, Zahar Epimenko, Alexander Molseenko, Sergey A. Fedorchuk, Alexander Areshchenko, Andrei Volokitin and Anton Korobov.
Ukraine has 68 GMs, 25 IMs, 2 FMs and 5 without title but made it to the top 100.
France is 3rd with 38 GMs, 51 IMs and 11 FMs. The top 10 players are Lagrave Maxime Vachier, Etienne Bacrot, Laurent Pressinet, Tigran Gharamian, Vladislav Tkachiev, Romain Edouard, Christian Bauer, Sebastian Feller, Hicham Hamdouchi and Andrei Sokolov.
Ever-improving China climbed to 4th with 24 GMs, 10 WGMs (Woman Grandmaster), 9 IMs, 4 WIMs (Woman International Master), 2 FMs, 5 WFMs (Woman FIDE Master) and the rests are unrated.
The top 10 players are Hao Wang, Yue Wang, Xiangzhi Bu, Jiancho Zhou, Hua Ni, Chao Li, Jiangchuan Yi, Pengxiang Zhang, Yangyi Yu and Xiaomin Peng.
Powerhouse Hungary boasts the highest rated woman in men division Judit Polgar at no. 3 in the top 10. There are 36 GMs in the top 100, 45 IMs, 1 WGM, 16 FMs and 2 have no titles.
The top 10 players are Peter Leko, Zoltan Almasi, Judit Polgar, Perenc Berkes, Csaba Balogh, Alexander Chernin, Peter Acs, Zoltan Gylmesi, Viktor Erdos and Imre Jr. Hera.
USA's top player is Hikaru Nakamura, who at 10 years old became the youngest chess master in the history of USA. He was followed by another child prodigy Gata Kamsky and Alexander Onischuk.
Yasser Seirawan, Yuri Shulman, Varuzhan Akobian, Robert Hess, Larry Christianssen, Jaan Ehlvest and Alexander Stripunsky completed the top 10 list.
USA has 39 GMs, 1 WGM, 40 IMs including Enrico Sevillano, a US-based Filipino International Master. There are also 15 FMs and the rest are untitled.
India is rated 7th but the current world champion Viswanathan Anand is one of the two players with 2800 rating, second only to world's no. 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway.
India's no. 2-10 are Krishnan Sasikiran, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, P. Harikrisna, Chanda Sandipan, 17-year old Parimarjan Negi, the 2nd youngest to earn a GM title at 12 years old. Sergey Karjakin of Russia is the youngest to attain a GM norm, just a few months over Negi.
G. N. Gopal is India's No. 7 followed by Humpey Koneru, Abhijeet Gupta and Prasad S. Harun. India has 22 GMs, 23 IMs, 1 FM and 3 untitled among 49 in the list.
Israel is 8th with its top player Boris Gelfand winning the 2009 World Chess Cup held in the same site as the World Chess Olympiad -- Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.
The other 9 top players are Emil Sutovsky, Ilia Smirin, Micahel Roiz, Boris Avruhk, Viktor Mikhalevski, Maxim Rodshtein, Alexander Huzman, Sergey Erenburg and Vitali Golod.
Azerbaijan is 9th and their top 10 players are Shakhivar Mamedvarov, Teimour Radjabov, Vugar Gashimov, Rauf Mamedov, Gadir Guseinov, Nidiat Mamenov, Eitai Safarti, Farid Abbasov, Azer Mirzoev and Rasul Ibrahimov.
10th slot is occupied by defending champion Armenia, who won 2 consecutive Olympiads, 2006 Torino, Italy and 2008 Dresden, Germany.
Its top 10 players are Levon Aronian, Vladimir Akopian, Gabriel Sargissian, Arman Pashikian, Hrant Merkumyan, Tigran L. Petrosian (the son of former world chess champion Tigran Petrosian, the master of defense), Zaven Adriasian, Avetik Grigoryan, Ashot Anastasian and the ageless 69-year old Rafael S. Vaganian.
Palau is listed at 151 with 11 players getting their updated international ratings for participating in the 2009 Palau National Chess Championship.
Tied at no. 1 are Menandro Manuel and Cyril Tomas Montel, Jr., followed by Roberto Hernandez, Eugenio Pastrana, Michael Mercado, Manuel 'Jun' Mahor, Jr., Bernardo Garcia, Romeo Caballes, Paquito 'Pax' Suringa, Jr., Craig Dittrich and Elpidio Manaligod.
Source: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
Pages 12-13
Volume 19
Issue 34
August 23-29, 2010
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