Hangin take on FIDE Ratings 
Kramnik, Anand, Kasparov under attack ?
Is Morozevich the best in the World ?

10/04/2004 - I got this story from Chessbase. The FIDE rating charts came out recently. Here are the top six.

 Kramnik's number 3 spot is under attack by Topalov and Morozevich. Well we already know the rating system is flawed. It's a good general statistic. The chart above identifies the top players in the world. 
     Using the rating charts to determine who's better than who, is flawed. We already know that the rating system is impacted by who you play and how often you play. FIDE rating chart is not like a baseball batting average. In baseball, the hitters get to bat often and the at bats are against the same pitches. So by the end of the season you have a high volume of at bats and hits against the same completion. You know who the best hitters are. You get a good comfort zone as to who is better than who. Of course it also depends on what ball park you play in and also you fellow teammates. In chess we don't have that so much. There are so many tournaments today. The top players don't play each other so much. That's why I liked the old style world champion system. There were interzonals, where the top players played each other and you got to see how each player did against his contemporaries in head to head match ups. You also got to see the overall pecking order.  There are so many tournaments these days, you really don't see the Super GM classical tournaments like Montreal 1979. The Amber classic is kind of like that now, but it's rapid and blindfold chess. I did a head to head analysis of each of the top players in the chart above  for the years 2002 to current.  I used www.chessgames.com for my analysis. It's not perfect.

   Some of the problems with the analysis are:
1) number of blacks vs. whites
2) different variants such as rapid, classical, and blindfold
3) I could be missing some games
   
  But the results led me to  a very interesting conclusion. Morozevich might just be the best in the world. He has an incredible 38% winning percentage against these top 5 players in the last three years.  He gets a lot of wins in a small number of games.
 
  Morozevich has an incredible record against Anand, Kramnik, and Topalov. 
  Anand has a incredible record against Kramnik, Leko, and Topalov.
  Kramnik has a good record against Leko and Topalov.
  Leko has a good record against  Topalov and Morozevich.
  Kasparov has a good record against Anand, but Kasparov is a non factor(he retired).
  Topalov is clearly a notch below the players mentioned above.
   
   Here how to interpret the stats -  3rd row, 2nd column under Kramnik \ Leko - 24-3-1-20. This means Kramnik played Leko 24 times, with 3 wins, 1 loss, and 20 draws in games played since 2002.

player

Leko

Kramnik

Kasparov

Anand

Topalov

Morozevich

overall

Leko

24-1-3-20

6-0-0-6

17-2-5-10

18-6-3-9

11-3-2-6

76-12-13-51

Kramnik

24-3-1-20

4-0-0-4

25-1-4-20

11-5-1-5

6-1-2-3

70-10-8-52

Kasparov

6-0-0-6

4-0-0-4

6-1-0-5

2-0-0-2

0-0-0-0

18-1-0-17

Anand

17-5-2-10

25-4-1-20

6-0-1-5

13-5-2-6

5-1-3-1

66-15-9-42

Topalov

18-3-6-9

11-1-5-1

2-0-0-2

13-2-5-6

7-2-4-1

51-8-20-23

Morozevich

11-2-3-6

6-2-1-3

0-0-0-0

5-3-1-1

7-4-2-1

29-11-7-11

Player 

Win %

Rating

Morozevich

38

2758

Anand

23

2781

Leko

16

2743

Topalov

16

2757

Kramnik

14

2760

Kasparov

06

2813

Player

Hangin's rank

Morozevich

1

Anand

2

Kramnik

3 -He is the 14th World Champion

Leko

4

Kasparov

5 - non factor - He is the greatest Champion of all time. I shook his hand 3 times. So I can't put him last. 

Topalov

6