The top ten were relatively inactive recently so there has been little change here. The most significant advances, amongst the highest-ranked, were those of Vugar Gashimov and Ruslan Ponomariov who moved above Alexander Grischuk, both of these players now have their career highest ratings. Gashimov is the second Azeri in the top ten.
The lower part of the table sees quite some movement as those players who did well in the European Championship in Aix-les-Bains have moved up.
Fourteen players from these forty gained rating points on the last list and thirteen have their career highest rating.
Here are all the details:
Ranking | Previous Ranking | Name | Country | Age | rating 1/5/11 | rating 1/3/11 | Rating 1/1/11 | Rating One year ago | Career Highest |
1 | 1 | Viswanathan Anand | IND | 41 | 2817 | 2817 | 2810 | 2789 | 2817 |
2 | 2 | Magnus Carlsen | NOR | 20 | 2815 | 2815 | 2814 | 2813 | 2826 |
3 | 3 | Levon Aronian | ARM | 28 | 2808 | 2808 | 2805 | 2783 | 2808 |
4 | 4 | Vladimir Kramnik | RUS | 35 | 2785 | 2785 | 2784 | 2790 | 2811 |
5 | 5 | Vassily Ivanchuk | UKR | 42 | 2776 | 2779 | 2764 | 2741 | 2787 |
6 | 6 | Sergey Karjakin | RUS | 21 | 2776 | 2776 | 2776 | 2739 | 2776 |
7 | 7 | Veselin Topalov | BUL | 36 | 2775 | 2775 | 2775 | 2812 | 2813 |
8 | 8 | Hikaru Nakamura | USA | 23 | 2774 | 2774 | 2751 | 2733 | 2774 |
9 | 9 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | AZE | 26 | 2772 | 2772 | 2772 | 2763 | 2772 |
10 | 11 | Vugar Gashimov | AZE | 24 | 2760 | 2746 | 2736 | 2734 | 2760 |
11 | 13 | Ruslan Ponomariov | UKR | 27 | 2754 | 2743 | 2744 | 2733 | 2754 |
12 | 10 | Alexander Grischuk | RUS | 27 | 2747 | 2747 | 2773 | 2760 | 2773 |
13 | 12 | Teimour Radjabov | AZE | 24 | 2744 | 2744 | 2744 | 2740 | 2761 |
14 | 17 | Peter Svidler | RUS | 34 | 2739 | 2730 | 2730 | 2735 | 2765 |
15 | 23 | Nikita Vitiugov | RUS | 24 | 2733 | 2720 | 2709 | 2707 | 2733 |
16 | 16 | Boris Gelfand | ISR | 42 | 2733 | 2733 | 2733 | 2741 | 2761 |
17 | 28 | Dmitry Jakovenko | RUS | 27 | 2732 | 2718 | 2718 | 2725 | 2760 |
18 | 15 | Gata Kamsky | USA | 36 | 2732 | 2733 | 2730 | 2702 | 2745 |
19 | 20 | Wang Hao | CHN | 21 | 2732 | 2728 | 2731 | 2722 | 2732 |
20 | 19 | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | FRA | 20 | 2731 | 2728 | 2715 | 2710 | 2731 |
21 | 31 | Leinier Dominguez Perez | CUB | 27 | 2726 | 2716 | 2716 | 2713 | 2726 |
22 | 30 | Michael Adams | ENG | 39 | 2726 | 2716 | 2723 | 2697 | 2755 |
23 | 35 | Francisco Vallejo Pons | ESP | 28 | 2722 | 2707 | 2698 | 2703 | 2722 |
24 | 33 | Radoslaw Wojtaszek | POL | 24 | 2721 | 2711 | 2726 | 2663 | 2726 |
25 | 24 | Zoltan Almasi | HUN | 34 | 2719 | 2719 | 2719 | 2725 | 2725 |
26 | 27 | Peter Leko | HUN | 31 | 2717 | 2717 | 2717 | 2735 | 2763 |
27 | 52 | Arkadij Naiditsch | GER | 25 | 2716 | 2684 | 2685 | 2686 | 2716 |
28 | 28 | Fabiano Caruana | ITA | 18 | 2714 | 2716 | 2721 | 2675 | 2721 |
29 | 14 | Wang Yue | CHN | 24 | 2714 | 2734 | 2734 | 2752 | 2756 |
30 | 21 | Pavel Eljanov | UKR | 27 | 2712 | 2724 | 2724 | 2751 | 2761 |
31 | 18 | Ian Nepomniachtchi | RUS | 20 | 2711 | 2729 | 2733 | 2695 | 2733 |
32 | 38 | Alexei Shirov | ESP | 38 | 2709 | 2701 | 2722 | 2742 | 2755 |
33 | 36 | Evgeny Tomashevsky | RUS | 23 | 2707 | 2707 | 2695 | 2708 | 2708 |
34 | 25 | Etienne Bacrot | FRA | 28 | 2705 | 2718 | 2723 | 2710 | 2731 |
35 | 29 | Sergei Movsesian | ARM | 32 | 2705 | 2716 | 2721 | 2717 | 2751 |
36 | 37 | Baadur Jobava | GEO | 27 | 2704 | 2707 | 2707 | 2715 | 2715 |
37 | 32 | Vladimir Malakhov | RUS | 30 | 2704 | 2714 | 2714 | 2722 | 2732 |
38 | 39 | Alexei Dreev | RUS | 42 | 2703 | 2697 | 2694 | 2655 | 2705 |
39 | 22 | David Navara | CZE | 26 | 2702 | 2722 | 2708 | 2718 | 2731 |
40 | 34 | Zahar Efimenko | UKR | 25 | 2701 | 2708 | 2701 | 2677 | 2708 |
41 | 51 | Judit Polgar | HUN | 34 | 2699 | 2686 | 2686 | 2682 | 2735 |
There are now forty 2700+ players, with two players coming back into this category: Arkadij Naiditsch, after an incredible Bundesliga season, and Alexey Dreev who has almost gained fifty points in a year. Age is no barrier, as Dreev is second oldest (to Gelfand) in the top 40.
In 41st place on the world ranking list, and only one point short of 2700 status, is Judit Polgar the highest-ranking female player of all time.
As for nationalities, Russia now has ten players in the top 40, Ukraine four, Azerbaijan three and USA, China, France, Hungary and Spain all have two. Sergei Movsesian has switched back to Armenia.
A good source of further information is the International Chess Federation site FIDE