World Chess Federation (FIDE) has published the rating list of the world’s leading chess players as of July 1, 2009. Second player in the list was Armenian grand master Levon Aronyan who improved his position by rising from the 6th horizon to the 4th.
In comparison with FIDE’s previous rating list published in April, the top three positions remained unchanged, with Vaselin Topalov (grand master Bulgaria), Viswanathan Anand (grand master, India) and Magnus Carlsen taking the first, second and third places respectively. Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) fell from the 5th to the 8th horizon and Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) – from the 4th to the 6th horizon. Israeli grand master Boris Gelfand appeared in the top ten, leaving behind Russian player Alexander Grischuk.
Another leading Armenian chess player was Vladimir Hakobyan who took the 25th place instead of the 34th recorded in April.
Top ten players in FIDE’s April 2009 rating list were:
1. Topalov, Veselin (Bulgaria) – 2813
2. Anand, Viswanathan (India) – 2788
3. Carlsen, Magnus (Norway) – 2772
4. Aronyan, Levon (Armenia) – 2768
5. Jakovenko, Dmitry (Russia) – 2760
6. Kramnik, Vladmir (Russia) – 2759
7. Leko, Peter (Hungary) – 2756
8. Radjabov, Teimour (Azerbaijan) – 2756
9. Gelfand, Boris (Israel) – 2755
10. Morozevich, Alexander (Russia) – 2751
The following Armenian representatives were included in the top 100 players’ list
25. Vladimir Hakobyan (Armenia) – 2712
64. Gabriel Sargsyan (Armenia) – 2667
84. Arman Pashikyan (Armenia) – 2650.
