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The Year 2004 in Review

The World's Best Players

The year 2004 in chess saw FIDE Knockout World Championships for men and women, a non-FIDE title bout between Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko, and the 36th Olympiad. In reviewing the year, we once again owe a big debt to Mark Crowther's The Week in Chess (see the link on the right) and its global network of correspondents. Let's start by listing the world's top players, as announced quarterly by FIDE. World's Top-10 (FIDE) 2004 Name NAT : Jan No : Apr No : Jul No : Oct No Kasparov, Gary RUS : 2831 1 : 2817 1 : 2817 1 : 2813 1 Anand, Viswanathan IND : 2766 3 : 2774 2 : 2782 2 : 2781 2 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS : 2777 2 : 2764 3 : 2770 3 : 2760 3 Morozevich, Alexander RUS : 2732 7 : 2732 7 : 2743 4 : 2758 4 Topalov, Veselin BUL : 2735 6 : 2737 5 : 2737 7 : 2757 5 Leko, Peter HUN : 2722 10 : 2741 4 : 2741 5 : 2743 6 Adams, Michael ENG : : 2731 8 : 2738 6 : 2740 7 Svidler, Peter RUS : 2747 4 : 2733 6 : 2727 9 : 2735 8 Polgar, Judit HUN : 2728 8 : 2728 9 : 2728 8 : 2728 9 Shirov, Alexei ESP : 2736 5 : : 2725 10 : 2726 10 Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR : 2722 9 : 2722 10 : : The top-10 saw little movement in 2004. Only 11 different names figured on the list; Ponomariov dropped off the list and was replaced by Adams. After more than two years with Kasparov, Kramnik, and Anand at no.1, 2, and 3, Anand overtook Kramnik to end the year at world no.2. The 2003 Chess Oscar was awarded by the Russian 64 Magazine to Anand, who received 4150 total votes, including 232 first place votes. He was followed by Svidler (2575, 35 1st) and Kramnik (2518, 20). Kasparov, the 2002 Oscar winner, finished 4th (2262, 38). Anand also won the Oscar in 1997 and 1998. Next : World Championship 2004

More of this Feature • The Best Players • World Championship • International Events • National Championships • Opens • Computers • Passages  Related Resources • The Best Players 2003  Elsewhere on the Web • The Week in Chess