The Elista FIDE Office is pleased to publish the 1st January 2009 FIDE Rating List which includes tournaments up to 15 December 2008 and FIDE events such as the Grand Prix in Elista, Kalmykia which ended 28 December. Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria retained first place with a rating of 2796, an increase of 5 points from his performance in the Dresden Olympiad. His victory in the Pearl Springs tournament in Nanjing, China, which ended 22nd December, will be rated for April 2009, according to FIDE regulations.

Viswanathan Anand climbed to second slot with 2791, an increase of 8 points from October after his victory in his World Championship Match with Vladimir Kramnik last October in Bonn, Germany.

Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR), 2779, and Magnus Carlsen (NOR), 2776, retained their 3rd and 4th slots as Alexander Morozevich dropped from 2nd to 5th place with 2771.

Teimour Radjabov (AZE) with 2761 and Dimitry Jakovenko (RUS) with 2760, climbed to 6th and 7th, respectively, as Vladimir Kramnik dropped to 8th place with 2759 losing, aside from the World Championship result, an additional 5 points at the Dresden Olympiad.


Peter Leko (HUN), 2751 and Sergei Movsesian (SVK), 2751, round off the top ten.

Download the 1st January 2009 FIDE Rating List in text format. Search for individual ratings. Even before publication of the quarterly list, players can check in advance calculations of tournament submitted for rating and know their Expected Rating Change. The new list of top players can be found at http://ratings.fide.com/toplist.phtml.

The Elista FIDE Office thanks all National Chess Federations, Rating Officers and Arbiters for their help in producing the FIDE Rating List. The FIDE Rating List is based on all tournament reports around the world submitted for rating, from club events to World Championships.

We remind Rating Officers to please upload the pgn files of the tournament to the FIDE Ratings Server.

Players may make corrections of recent events, if any, through their National Chess Federation Rating Officer.

Casto Abundo
FIDE Rating Administrator
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