Anand to get rightful place in revised list

Anand seen in the above photo with the Trophy
after winning the Morelia Linares Chess Championship 2007

"Pleased to inform you we will rate Linares today. Congratulations to Anand, you and the AICF." That was the SMS received by the All India Chess Federation Secretary D.V. Sundar from Casto Abundo, of the FIDE Titles and Rating Committee, Athens, on Sunday. What it means is that Viswanathan Anand will be the new World No. 1, after all.

FIDE, the world chess governing body, had on March 31 released its April rating list, which had Anand at No. 2 and Bulgaria's Veselin Topalov at the top. That was because FIDE hadn't considered the performances of the players at the Linares tournament while it prepared the latest list. That was a bit surprising because ever since the April lists came into being in 2001, all the lists until last year had included Linares, though the deadline FIDE has set for submission of April lists is February 28, while the Linares event concluded on March 10.

The AICF had a point when it took up the matter with FIDE.

"We wanted to know why Linares was excluded from the April list only this year and requested its officials to take corrective measures," D.V. Sundar said. "I am happy that a corrected list will be published soon. I had also spoken to FIDE Qualification Commission chairman Mikko Markkula about this. I told the officials at FIDE that Viswanathan Anand could not be denied his rightful place. I was assured that the correction would be made soon."

The corrected list — after including Linares — will see Anand move to No. 1 and Topalov at No. 2. Anand had won at Linares, while Topalov had finished seventh in a field of eight.

It would have been extremely unfair to Anand if FIDE hadn't reacted to the AICF's protests; after all FIDE doesn't update the ranking list every week, it does that only once in three months.

And there have been only five players including Topalov, who became the World No. 1 in chess.

Article Source:-http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/02/stories/2007040202451600.htm