 | « Back to article | Print this article |
After initially depriving Viswanathan Anand of the top position in its latest ranking list, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) on Sunday bowed to widespread pressure and crowned the Indian as the world's number one player.
FIDE Rating Committee chairman Casto Abundo confirmed Anand as the game's new number one.
"Congratulations to Anand and the All India Chess Federation. Pleased to inform you that we have rated Linares event today and Anand is world number one," Abundo said in a message to PTI from Elista, Russia.
The Indian was to become the world number one on FIDE charts for the first time in his career after winning the Morelia-Linares tournament in Spain last month, but the FIDE list showed Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria still on top, 13 points ahead of Anand.
The game's world governing body said that the Morelia-Linares tournament was not taken into consideration while updating the rankings since it concluded on March 10, outside the cut-off date of February 28.
But following the AICF's strong protests and widespread criticism, FIDE agreed to correct the list.
AICF secretary D V Sundar objected to the FIDE's deviation from the long-standing practice of including the tournament in calculations for preparing the April ranking list.
AICF treasurer Bharat Singh Chauhan said the Asian Cities Chess Championship in Tehran, which was held from March 1 to 9, was also included in the tournaments used to calculate the April 2007 list. There were also some other events which spilled into March but were used in the calculations.
"This shows their (FIDE's) double standard," Chauhan said.
Anand overtook Topalov in Elo rating points after his superb win in Morelia-Linares tournament, where the Bulgarian lost a number of rating points before it ended on March 10.