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So, who's the hottest property in the top 10 rakings at the moment? Yeah, we know Carlsen is making waves and the no. 1 tag has that special feel to it. So, what is your other guess? Yes, its none other than Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan. With is fantastic run in the World Team Championship at Turkey recently, he has jumped into the top ten again. After the tragic cheating incident at last year's Aeroflot open, where Mamedyarov accused Kurnosov of getting help, his performance had slumped and he even dropped out of the top 20 in the world at one time. After some lacklustre performances, Mamedyarov started his rise from the low 2717 rating and at the WTCC bludgeoned mostly lower rated Grandmasters on the third board and leapt into the top league of the world rankings. He is now rated 2760 live, which was his previous highest rating. He seems to be more determined this time to reach his goal - the No. 1 ranking (according to his declaration on his website.) We watch his progress keenl...

1 Carlsen 2810 2 Topalov 2805 3 Anand 2790 4 Kramnik 2788 5 Aronian 2781 6 Gelfand 2761 7 Gashimov 2759 8 Wang Yue 2751 9 Ivanchuk 2749 10 Mamedyarov 2741

Garry Kasparov will be the guest of honour at the Corsican circuit 2008 where he will play against the top players from Corsica on 26th October. The Euro 100, 000 circuit will attract players like Mamedyarov, Bacrot, Bologon, Tiviakov, Tregubov, and Milov. Kasparov is also expected to attend a press conference on 27th October at Ajaccio.

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...

A preview of the January ratings and a few observations I made. I'm not yet sure if the World Cup results will be included. If yes, then a lot of other changes are possible. Kramnik and Anand will probably be tied for the World No.1 position. Big loser on points, no marks here for the correct guess, yes, Ivanchuk losing more than 30 pts (has already started to make up for it, though) Topalov moves to clear third with 2780. Mamedyarov gains smart points and he is likely to be fourth on the list. Big movers up - Karjakin, Cheparinov, Svidler and Carlsen. Sasikiran moves up a bit. Among the ladies, Koneru Humpy is inching up on Judit Polgar, even though she is not yet a match in class. She will be at 2612. Polgar loses a couple of points. Hou Yifan gains impressively.