New Delhi: Indian chess legend Vishwanathan Anand is determined not to give away his hard earned World No. 1 position as he opened up the gap to 23 points over second ranked world champions Vladimir Kramnik in the latest rankings issued by FIDE on Saturday.
Grandmaster Anand, who was for the first time propelled to the top of world chess in April this year following a rankings controversy, and had been on the footsteps of the pinnacle for almost a decade, had upstaged Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria.
He now leads the rankings with ELO 2792 in the second edition of the list for the year. Topalov, however, slipped further down in the rankings as he was placed third behind Kramnik, although only by a point.
Ukranian Vassily Ivanchuk climbed a staggering eight places to finish at No. 4, while Russia's Alexander Morozevich was pushed down to fifth.
In other significant movements in the top-10 list, Levon Aronian of Armenia slipped three places to eighth, Azerbeijani Teimour Radjabov went down two places to ninth while Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia leaped to 10th spot from 18th. Spanish Alexei Shirov was 11th with the gain of 10 places.
Fellow Indian Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikaran suffered a major setback with a 14-place dip to No. 39, while compatriot P Harikrishna jumped 12 places to No. 46.
Grandmaster Koneru Humpy, ELO 2572, was at the top among in the women's rankings as Judit Polgar of Hungary (ELO 2707) plays in only men's tournaments.
Dronavalli Harika was the next best Indian at 15th spot while Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman was at 20th place.
(With inputs from PTI)
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