Anand slips below 2800 ELO ratings, retains 2nd place in FIDE list

Brussels, July 2 (UNI) After his poor showing in the Turin Chess Olympiad, Viswanathan Anand has slipped below 2800 ELO ratings though he retained the second place in the latest FIDE chart headed by Bulgarian Veselin Topalov.

The Indian Grandmaster lost a record 24 ELO points and slipped to 2779 from previous 2803 while Topalov, who won the Mtel Masters in Sofia, gained nine points to remain on the top with 2813 points.

Topalov is the sole player now to have 2800 ELO rating points after Anand's exit from the coveted mark.

Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian, who was instrumental for his team winning the Turin Olympiad title, gained five points to keep the third place.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, who returned to active chess after a year's absence, gained 14 points to regain the fourth place, while compatriot Peter Svidler lost one point and moved down from 4th to 5th place.

Peter Leko (Hungary), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Adams (England), Alexander Morozevich (Russia) and Boris Gelfand (Israel) rounded off the top ten positions.

FIDE Top 20 List: 1. Veselin Topalov (BUL) 2813; 2. Vishwanathan Anand (IND) 2779; 3. Levon Aronian (ARM) 2761; 4. Vladimir Kramnik (RUS) 2743; 5. Peter Svidler (RUS) 2742; 6. Peter Leko (HUN) 2738; 7. Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR) 2734; 8. Michael Adams (ENG) 2732; 9. Alexander Morozevich (RUS) 2731; 10. Boris Gelfand (ISR) 2729; 11. Teimour Radjabov (AZE) 2728; 12. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE)2722; 13. Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR) 2721; 14. David Navara (CZE) 2719; 15. Alexei Shirov (ESP) 2716; 16. Vladimir Akopian (ARM) 2713; 17. Judit Polgar (HUN) 2710; 18. Alexander Grischuk (RUS) 2709; 19. Etienne Bacrot (FRA) 2707; 20. Gata Kamsky (USA) 2697 UNI XC PDS KN1233