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The Live Chess Ratings list shows some exciting changes. We now have three highly entertaining/enterprising/risk-taking fighters in the top 10 - Ivanchuk, Morozevich, and Nakamura. Of course, the other top players are no less entertaining, but they are pretty much stable in the top list. World Championship contenders V Anand and B Gelfand are at No. 2 and 14 respectively. If you glance a little lower, you see that Tomashevsky has gained huge points and now is well placed to enter the top 10. The big losers recently are Kamsky and Ponomariov. For India, we have a 2700+ player back in the group after a long time. K Sasikiran is playing the Corsica Masters and one hopes that he maintains the form that has brought him this invitation. Editor

Evgeny Alekseev is in the sole lead with 7 points after 10 rounds at the Russian Superfinals. He beat Konstantin Sakaev in the 10th round. Favorites Svidler and Morozevich trail behind in 4th and 6th positions. Round 10 results Sakaev - Alekseev 0-1 Vitiugov - Timofeev 1-0 Tomashevsky - Riazantsev 1-0 Svidler - Jakovenko 0.5-0.5 Lastin - Morozevich 0.5-0.5 Maslak - Inarkiev 0.5-0.5 Standings after Round 10 Alekseev 7 Vitiugov 6.5 Jakovenko, Svidler, Timofeev 6 Morozevich, Tomashevsky 5.5 Lastin 4.5 Sakaev,Inarkiev 3.5 Maslak, Riazantsev 3

The news of Round no. 8 was of course Morozevich losing to Evgeny Tomashevsky. Just two mistakes sealed Moro's fate. With the first one, he lost the advantage, with the second, it was graveyard time. Tomashevsky must be given credit for the nice finish without giving Moro a second chance. As for the key game of the day, Svidler vs Vitiugov, it was drawn after 67 long moves just as we were about to stick our necks out and declare that it will be a draw. This means that Svidler retains the lead with 5.5 points with Alekseev, Vitiugov, and Timofeev hot on his heels with 5 points. Tomashevsky vs Morozevich Key Moments (See Diagram) 26. .... g5 (the simple 26 ... Ra8 actually is a slight plus for Morozevich. Be careful with your King pawn pushes, Moro. We know how many times you've shown magic with that though) 34. ... Na5 (handing the win on a platter. 34 ... Na3 35. Bxb6 Nxb5 exchanges pawns and is a draw with precise play.) Tomashevsky vs Morozevich 1-0 Standings: Svidler 5.5 Vi...

Peter Svidler still leads at the Category XVII 61st Russian Chess Championships with 4.5 points. Nikita Vitiugov rated 2638 is ahead of three 2700+ players with 4 points. All the games in the 6th round were drawn. For the record, Svidler is playing at 2850 strength in this tournament. One feels that he will soon be a force to reckon with again, in the top 10 that is, where he really belongs. Even though Morozevich lost to Svidler, he is playing solidly innovative chess. You can sense that he is playing with the responsibility of a near 2800 player. Leading Standings after the 6th round: Svidler 4.5 Vitiugov 4 Morozevich, Lastin, Alekseev, Timofeev 3.5

The 350, 000 Francs World Blitz Chess Championships will be held at Almaty, Kazakhstan. The time control is 5 minutes for the entire game. Morozevich, Radjabov, Svidler, Grischuk, Gelfand, Judit Polgar, Ivanchuk are some of the players participating. More details and Official site....

The Category XXII Super GM Grand Slam Chess Final Masters started at Bilbao. Magnus Carlsen is two points ahead of the field by virtue of his win against Aronian. Usually a 2 point margin is almost a tournament win. But at Bilbao, it is different because 3 points are awarded for a win and 1 point for a draw. The winner gets 150,000 Euros. Anand escaped a clever onslaught by Ivanchuk and finally escaped with a draw. Even the usually volcanic Topalov could not create anything exciting. Elsewhere on the live ratings, Carlsen has once again moved to the 2nd spot. We've had Morozevich running away impossibly in the first half of the Tal Memorial and actually tasting the World No. 1 spot (for a day). Carlsen and Ivanchuk have been close. Its really very interesting to watch. FIDE has to watch out ! Updated ratings once every three months may not be enough anymore !

Peter Svidler, probably angered by his strange defeat to a low ranked player yesterday, beat Alexey Dreev in only 36 moves in a show of dominance to come back into the reckoning. The shock of the day was the defeat of Alexander Morozevich at the hands of Nikita Vitiugov. While no one in this tournament can really be called weak, Vitiugov is certainly not in Morozevich's class yet. But maybe this is his break out moment ? In other games, Sakaev upset Jakovenko and Grischuk beat Amonatov. The tournament is pretty amazing since these young guys don't seem to think much about the exploits of players like Svidler and Morozevich at the very top of world chess. More exciting games sure to come !

The Russian superfinals got off to an explosive start with Andrey Rychagov beating fancied Peter Svidler. Rated almost 200 points below Svidler, Rychagov converted an advantage of a rook and knight endgame with an extra central pawn to win in 51 moves. Morozevich played his usual brand of chess to completely outplay Jakovenko but could not finish smoothly. They settled for a draw in 69 moves. There were wins by Farrukh Amonatov against Artyom Timofeev and Evgeny Tomashevsky against Nikita Vitugov (with Black) while Grishchuk drew his game against the solid Alexey Dreev. In the women's Russian superfinals, there were four first round winners, Svetlana Matveeva won against Tatiana Stepovaia, Natalija Pogonina beat Olga Girya, Elena Tairov defeated Tatiana Shadrina and Ekaterina Korbut beat Valentina Gunina. The two Kosintseva sisters drew their match in just 9 moves. The official site in Russian - http://russiachess.org/content/blogcategory/93/385/

The incredibly strong Russian Superfinals starts today. The field includes Alekseev, Grischuk, Dreev, Morozevich, Svidler, Timofeev, Tomashevsky, Jakovenko and other strong contenders. The tournament will be over 11 rounds and Alekseev is the defending champion.