A highly informative overview of current FIDE ratings may be found here: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6027 http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail

A highly informative overview of current FIDE ratings may be found here: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6027 http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=6027. Basically, this is a system by which chess grandmasters get rated based on their tournament play over a lengthy period. The top chess players of recent years (post-Kasparov) are the trio of Kramnik (Russia), Topalov (Bulgaria), and Anand (India), with Anand being the current world champion and with Topalov scheduled to play him for the title in the very near future. Each of these guys has been at the top of his field for at least a decade and Magnus Carlsen has done nothing as yet to displace them from the very top. Even when it comes to the FIDE ratings, all these players are neck and neck (Carlsen: 2810; Topalov: 2801; Anand: 2790; Kramnik: 2788). What is amazing here is not the absolute ratings but the prodigious nature of Carlsen's ascendancy to the highest rating in the world, which can be seen by comparing the following graphs showing the ratings progress from 2001-2010 for each of these players: Carlsen: http://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=1503014 http://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=1503014; Topalov: http://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=2900084 http://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=2900084; Anand: http://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=5000017 http://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=5000017; Kramnik: http://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=4101588 http://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=4101588. As the graphs show, Topalov, Anand, and Kramnik have each had a 2700 or greater ranking (more or less without fail) for each of the years from 2000 through 2010. They are the old guard who have dominated the game for years. They have significant variations in their play (for example, Kramnik is super-methodical and cautious, preferring to grind his opponents slowly while opting for drawish variations in his manner of play while Topolav is a tremendous risk-taker who frequently likes to bust up the positions with wild variations and super-aggressive tactics) but the chess world has lived with this for some time now and there is nothing new here. In contrast, Carlsen has moved in a virtually unbroken upward line from about a 2000 FIDE rating in year 2001 (when he was 10 years old) to his current 2810 rating in year 2010 (he is now 19). Thus, he represents the child prodigy coming into maturity as a breath of fresh air to the chess world - though he is not the world champion, for him, it is all potential future greatness and this has stirred tremendous excitement. It doesn't hurt that Carlsen is likable and is being mentored by Kasparov, who is perhaps the greatest grandmaster of modern times.