Chess

THE JULY rating list came out a few days ago, though, as with Fide's previous list (January 1999), it will definitely need some emendation since some important tournaments have been omitted, notably Garry Kasparov's victory in Sarajevo in May. Indeed the list, which Internet users may download in its entirety from the new FIDE site http;//www.data.ru/ fide, is listed as alph9907.txt - ie the "alpha" version.

Despite the failure to include Sarajevo, Kasparov's third victory in succession after Wijk aan Zee and Linares (and preceding his excellent victory - admittedly at rapidplay, which is rated separately - at Frankfurt, of which a full report tomorrow), Kasparov has climbed to the giddy heights of 2,841; and if and when Sarajevo is included should breach the 2,850 barrier: which subtracting 600 and dividing by 8 gives 281.25 BCF!

Far in his wake come Anand 2,771, Kramnik 2,760, Morozevich 2,751, Shirov 2,722, Gelfand 2,713, Karpov 2,709, Michael Adams 2,705, Ivanchuk 2,702, Leko 2,699, Topalov 2,695 and Short 12th on 2,689.

The other top English ratings are Sadler 2,626, Hodgson 2,605, Nunn 2598, myself 2,597, Miles 2,588 and Emms 2,586 and there are a healthy 14 more rated 2,500 or over.

Judit Polgar, who is 20th overall, of course heads the women's list on 2,671, way ahead of Alisa Galliamova, Ivanchuk 2,556, Maia Chiburdanidze 2,551 and Xie Jun 2,528.

Perhaps in view of her present dispute with Fide, of which more anon, the Women's World Champion Judit's sister Zsuzsa Polgar has been omitted although she appears in the main list on 2,565! Harriet Hunt is 24th on 2,420, while our other three top women, Susan Lalic, Ruth Sheldon and Jovanka Houska, are on 2,318, 2,310 and 2,251.

The junior list is headed by Peter Leko 2,699, who still won't be 20 till 8 September. And he's followed by Ponomariov 2,616, Kasimdzanov 2,603, Bunzmann 2,596 and Bacrot 2,592.

So many numbers: back to some real chess tomorrow.