Numero Uno....Again

Magnus Carlsen may have disappointed his legion of fans by missing out at a crack at the world championship by skipping the candidates' matches in Kazan, but the Norwegian is back again at the top of the officialJuly Fide rating listafter his performance at the recent King Tournament in Medias.

Carlsen is numero uno after again overtaking World Champion Vishy Anand, who didn't play in the last period. And that was not the only change in the world's top 10 - as expected, Sergey Karjakin (also a big performance at the Kings Tournament) moves up to world #4 (and new Russian #1) with the double whammy on Vladimir Kramnik; Ruslan Ponomariov, after winning the Ukraine Championship, moves to #7 on the same rating as Ukrainian #1 Vassily Ivanchuk, who takes the bragging righted ahead of his countryman by virtue of having played more games.

While Veselin Topalov, Hikaru Namamura and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov take the last three positions in the top 10, there could be more movement coming during a very active "Summer of Chess" coming our way soon (see below!).

FIDE Top 10: 1. Magnus Carlsen, 2821 (+6); 2. Vishy Anand, 2817 (=); 3. Levon Aronian, 2805 (-3); 4. Sergey Karjakin, 2788 (+12); 5. Vladimir Kramnik, 2781 (-4); 6. Vassily Ivanchuk, 2768 (-8); 7. Ruslan Ponomariov, 2768 (+14); 8. Veselin Topalov, 2768 (-8); 9 Hikaru Nakamura, 2766 (-8); 10. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 2765 (-7)