Summary of FIDE Chess Ratings for 2011

The end of 2011 is days away, I'd like to sum up the chess ratings for the Filipino chess players and our country's ranking-rating compared to all the FIDE-member countries.

Let us start with the most recent November 2011 FIDE released rating. Philippine's Top Ten:

1. GM Wesley So 2659
2. GM Oliver Barbosa 2571
3. GM Rogelio Antonio Jr 2557
4. GM Mark Paragua 2522
5. GM Joseph Sanchez 2518
6. GM Richard Bitoon 2515
7. GM Julio Catalino Sadorra 2506
8. GM John Paul Gomez 2506
9. GM Darwin Laylo 2502
10. GM Eugene Torre 2502

Such a nice thing to see, all of our players in the top ten all have their grandmaster title. Just to give you a backgrounder on this numbers game, here is Wikipedia's entry:

"The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor.

The Elo system was invented as an improved chess rating system, but today it is also used in many other games. It is also used as a rating system for multiplayer competition in a number of video games,^[1] and has been adapted to team sports including association football, American college football, basketball, and Major League Baseball."

And in the FIDE Country ranking where the average rating of the top ten players are used to determine the standings, the Philippines is on 33rd out of 145 countries. We have 16 Filipino chess grandmasters and a couple of players are on the side waiting to fulfill the required 2500 rating to become a full-pledged chess GM.

The Global Top Ten:

1. Russia
2. Ukraine
3. France
4. China
5. Hungary
6. Armenia
7. USA
8. Israel 
9. India
10. Azerbaijan  

Russia has maintained their world dominance in the game of chess although the current world champion is a native of India. It won't be a surprise if one day Ukraine, France and China overtake the Russians in this game.