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Here's an interesting game from the European Club Cup. Sasikiran, who is relatively new to the 2700+ club, is up against Radjabov. Even though Teimour Radjabov is much younger, he has tremendous experience playing at the highest levels and it shows. Sasi (as he is affectionately called), is nervous at accepting pawn sacrifices twice (heard - when in doubt, accept sacrifices?), and eventually blunders. Radjabov finishes off Sasi in style in the end. Note that Radjabov offers a pawn on moves 13 and 32. Although the offer at move 13 can prove dangerous, Sasi could have taken the pawn offered on move 32. Sasikiran - Radjabov 0-1

Put a bunch of the highest rated players and this is what you get. The world No. 1 ranking has now been occupied by 3 players during the Bilbao tournament. And you may recount that Morozevich was recently the No. 1 for a short while. The live chess ratings are certainly attracting more attention than the static chess ratings list that changes only once in 3 months. Ivanchuk occupies the no. 1 position now thanks to his win over Teimour Radjabov. Anand lost a winning position with the white pieces. He cannot escape with the "cannot show preparation" excuse, since the mistake was made in the heavy pieces endgame. Topalov continued to shine by beating Carlsen twice in this tournament. In fact, Topalov is very near to the No. 1 ranking now. And looking at the way he is playing in this tournament, don't be surprised if he takes over that spot soon. 1 Ivanchuk 2791 2 Morozevich 2787 3 Carlsen 2786 4 Topalov 2785 5 Anand 2784 6 Kramnik 2772 7 Aronian 2761 8 ...

World champion Vishy Anand leads after the fifth round of the Morelia Linares chess tournament. Standings after 5th round: 1. Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2799 3½ 2892 2. Aronian, Levon g ARM 2739 3 2836 3. Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2755 2½ 2760 4. Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2780 2½ 2742 5. Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2733 2½ 2767 6. Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2735 2 2692 7. Lékó, Peter g HUN 2753 2 2682 8. Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2751 2 2676

Corus mid day live commentary Mamedyarov vs Carlsen Mamedyarov always had a plus and was almost close to a significant plus, but he delayed the f pawn advance. Carlsen then managed to gain equality by move 23. Ivanchuk vs Polgar This queen's indian defence game was always balanced and Polgar has a slight edge in the middle game. Aronian vs Topalov By far one of the most exciting games on display today. Topalov made some amazing moves to bring the white king into the middle. But he missed a promising continuation and the game is drawish. Radjabov vs Anand A Semi-slav game with 5. Bg6 h6 Anand chose to sacrifice his castling rights to gain two pawns but Radjabov gave them back to get a decent edge by the middle game stage. Anand missed the right continuation to achieve balance.

Update: -------------------------------------------- Radjabov won the ACP world rapid chess championship. He beat Grischuk 2.5-1.5 in the final. -------------------------------------------- The semi-finalists in the world cup rapid championships were spotted. Jakovenko beat giant-killer Inarkiev, Radjabov upset Ivanchuk, Grishchuk defeated Svidler and Karjakin eliminated Gelfand. In a tournament graced by ex-world champion Karpov and Judit Polgar, who lost earlier, the youngsters are surely grabbing the limelight. Results of the Quarterfinals: Jakovenko, Dmitry vs Inarkiev, Ernesto 1.5-0.5 Radjabov, Teimour vs Ivanchuk, Vassily 3-2 Svidler, Peter vs Grischuk, Alexander 0.5-1.5 Karjakin, Sergey vs Gelfand, Boris 3-1

The focus will obviously be on the Kramnik - Anand rivarly and now that they are tied for the top spot in the world with exactly the same ELO points, this tournament will more or less serve as a tie-break. Topalov has lost a lot of the headlines to the top two, so he'll probably grab this chance to try and get some. Carlsen, Mamedyarov, and the ever dangerous Judit Polgar are others to watch. The Group A of the Corus Chess Tournaments reads like a Who's who in chess. Here's the list updated with the January 2008 Ratings. Note that Ivanchuk for example, appears second but is ninth in the world because he slipped by the time the Corus tournament was announced and the Ratings list was updated. Same with Leko and Aronian too and so on. Kramnik moved up. World Rank, Name, Country, Rating GM Group A 1 GM Viswanathan Anand India 2799 9 GM Vassily Ivanchuk Ukraine 2751 1 GM Vladimir Kramnik Russia 2799 3 GM Veselin Topalov Bulgaria 2780 8 GM Peter Leko Hungary 2753 6 GM Shakryar Ma...

The rating list for January 2008 has been published a bit early this time. As expected Anand and Kramnik are tied for the first place with 2799. Topalov moves to number three. Big gainers are Svidler, Carlsen, Karjakin and Cheparinov. Svidler in fact jumped into the top five in style. He is about to lose some serious points from the Russian Superfinals event though. But that event will be rated only in the next list. Shirov too moves deeper into the top ten. Mamedyarov is already firmly entrenched in the top ten. In the women's section, Koneru Humpy of India is gaining on Judit Polgar of Hungary. The difference between them is now only 95 points. No one has dared come nearer in recent times. Hou Yifan is also bound to challenge these two very soon. Zhu Chen is probably coming back to her full form. She is now fourth and is one of the fastest movers. She has gained in the last six rating lists consecutively ! Probably for the first time, the top ten active players in the ladies sect...