India, France have Highest Number of Rated Chess Players in the World

India has just moved up to join France as the No. One ranked chess nation in terms of FIDE rated players. India rose to 35,200, and this number will be moving back and forth in the next few days until November when India is expected to be No. One.Strangely, 35,200 is the same as France, the leader for over ten years. But India is growing steeply and France moderately. This had to happen. This week, one can expect India to surge ahead of the French number and never look back! Asia set to rule world chess.About four decades back, India had just Manuel Aaron on the rating list. People still remember him since his name was the first entry in the...

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Carlsen's Form vs Anand's Experience

The clash itself is still a good two weeks away but the buzz is already palpable for the World Chess Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and world number one Magnus Carlsen, who is half the Indian legend's age.Given the statistics, Anand holds the advantage. The two have played 29 games so far in the Classical format with Anand winning six and Carlsen clinching three while the remaining 20 ending in draws.The November 9 to 28 match can be best described by a famous line -- An unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.Carlsen is the unstoppable force, having broken all records, scaled one peak after the other like no one else and...

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Computer World Chess: Komodo wins Stage 2; Stage 3 Begins Today

The chess engine Komodo is the winner of Stage 2 of the world’s strongest computer chess championship TCEC. Komodo, the engine by Don Dailey and Larry Kaufman rated 3084 elo, achieved 14,0/19 to edge the solid opposition. Second place is for the new Stockfish 4, by M. Costalba, T. Romstad and J. Kiiski. The 3098 rated engine collected 13,5/19 and what deprived it of the first place was probably the direct match loss against Komodo.Third place is for Gull 2.2 by Vadim Demichev with 12,0/19. It started as 8th seeded, but showed spectacular ability outplaying all lower rated competitors and getting a full point against the winner Komodo....

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