India Widens Lead In New Rating List

India Widens Lead In New Rating List
By Arvind AAron

FIDE has published its new rating number on the first of January. India’s lead over the rest of the nations in the number of players present in the list has widened to 4203. In the second place behind India is Russia.

The total number of players found in the FIDE rating list is: India 46024, Russia 41821, France 39556, Spain 34171 and Germany 29276.

In the world top ratings, Anand moved to fifth place following his victory in the London Chess Classic. He is the oldest player in the top ten showing excellent fitness. Carlsen, Caruana, Grischuk and Topalov are ahead of him. Behind him are Aronian, Giri, Kramnik, Nakamura and Wesley So (now USA not Philippines!).

India is ranked sixth among nations in the average ratings of the top ten players after Russia, China, Ukraine, USA and France. Among women India are fifth after China, Russia, Georgia and Ukraine.

Asian numbers in the rating list: India 46024, Iran 13723, Sri Lanka 6334, Australia 2653, Malaysia 2373, Bangladesh 2003, Singapore 1963, Philippines 1957, Kazakhstan 1817, China 1598, Vietnam 1568, UAE 1555.

In 2014, India went past China in the number of Grand Masters. India has the most grandmasters in any Asian nation. Eugenio Torre of the Philippines was Asia’s first Grand Master but India’s big growth in the last ten years swept past all.