Chess rating system Elo vs Rest of the World Contest

Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess News & Trivia (C) 2010

First prize is a copy of Fritz signed by all-time greats Garry Kasparov,

Viswanathan Anand, Anatoly Karpov, and Vladimir Kramnik!

Hello Everyone,

There has been this debate for some time now about how good the Elo rating is. And, there has been a contest going on for that which ends on November 14th.

The contest is based upon the premise that a primary purpose of any chess rating system is to accurately assess the current strength of players, and we can measure the accuracy of a rating system by seeing how well the ratings do at predicting players' results in upcoming events. The winner of the contest will be the one whose rating system does the best job at predicting the results of a set of 7,800 games played recently among players rated 2200+.

So far there has been an unprecedented level of participation, with 162 different teams submitting entries to the contest! There is also a very active discussion forum to promote the free flow of ideas, although many teams are still hesitant to share too many details about their approach (especially considering that the winner will receive a copy of Fritz signed by Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, Anatoly Karpov, and Viktor Korchnoi) Both Chessbase and Kaggle have donated generous prizes, to be awarded to top-performing participants who are willing to share their methodology publicly.

You can read more about the contest in this chessbase report.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see her personal blog at

www.chessqueen.com

New Women's FIDE Ratings for January 2010

The new FIDE ratings for Top Women as of January 1, 2010 have come out!

Some points to be noted are:

• There are now 17 women above the 2500 level (15 in November)

• Nana Dzagnidze lost most, -41 points since November (4th to 14th)

• There are now 3 Russians in the top 10 (the 2 Kosintsevas and me)

• I went up from 11th to 8th thanks to my good performance in Novi Sad

• Nice increases by Lahno +19 (now 9th) and N. Kosintseva +15 (now 5th)

• The top players from USA are #30 Anna Zatonskih and #37 Irina Krush

You can find the whole table below:

Rank	Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games	B-Year
1	Polgar, Judit	g	HUN	2682	4	1976
2	Koneru, Humpy	g	IND	2614	8	1987
3	Hou, Yifan	g	CHN	2590	14	1994
4	Stefanova, Antoaneta	g	BUL	2545	7	1979
5	Kosintseva, Nadezhda	m	RUS	2533	9	1985
6	Cramling, Pia	g	SWE	2528	4	1963
7	Muzychuk, Anna	m	SLO	2523	25	1990
8	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	g	RUS	2523	10	1984
9	Lahno, Kateryna	g	UKR	2518	16	1989
10	Kosintseva, Tatiana	g	RUS	2515	8	1986
11	Chiburdanidze, Maia	g	GEO	2514	0	1961
12	Ju, Wenjun	wg	CHN	2512	4	1991
13	Sebag, Marie	g	FRA	2510	8	1986
14	Dzagnidze, Nana	g	GEO	2506	19	1987
15	Zhao, Xue	g	CHN	2504	4	1985
16	Mkrtchian, Lilit	m	ARM	2503	9	1982
17	Pogonina, Natalija	wg	RUS	2501	0	1985
18	Danielian, Elina	m	ARM	2495	11	1978
19	Javakhishvili, Lela	m	GEO	2493	7	1984
20	Cmilyte, Viktorija	m	LTU	2489	9	1983
21	Hoang Thanh Trang	g	HUN	2487	0	1980
22	Paehtz, Elisabeth	m	GER	2484	9	1985
23	Ruan, Lufei	wg	CHN	2479	2	1987
24	Xu, Yuhua	g	CHN	2478	3	1976
25	Harika, Dronavalli	m	IND	2471	11	1991
26	Gaponenko, Inna	m	UKR	2470	16	1976
27	Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan	g	SCO	2470	9	1968
28	Zhu, Chen	g	QAT	2470	4	1976
29	Qin, Kanying	wg	CHN	2466	0	1974
30	Zatonskih, Anna	m	USA	2466	0	1978
31	Tan, Zhongyi	wg	CHN	2464	3	1991
32	Zhukova, Natalia	wg	UKR	2462	8	1979
33	Khotenashvili, Bela	m	GEO	2461	8	1988
34	Dembo, Yelena	m	GRE	2457	8	1983
35	Skripchenko, Almira	m	FRA	2456	0	1976
36	Rajlich, Iweta	m	POL	2455	13	1981
37	Krush, Irina	m	USA	2455	5	1983
38	Tairova, Elena	m	RUS	2455	0	1991
39	Ushenina, Anna	m	UKR	2452	6	1985
40	Hunt, Harriet V	m	ENG	2452	0	1978
41	Socko, Monika	g	POL	2450	14	1978
42	Gunina, Valentina	wf	RUS	2448	7	1989
43	Korbut, Ekaterina	m	RUS	2448	0	1985
44	Muzychuk, Mariya	m	UKR	2447	0	1992
45	Atalik, Ekaterina	m	TUR	2445	0	1982
46	Shen, Yang	wg	CHN	2444	2	1989
47	Foisor, Cristina-Adela	m	ROU	2440	10	1967
48	Huang, Qian	wg	CHN	2439	3	1986
49	Khukhashvili, Sopiko	m	GEO	2438	7	1985
50	Zhang, Xiaowen	wg	CHN	2437	24	1989
51	Repkova, Eva	m	SVK	2434	0	1975
52	Romanko, Marina	m	RUS	2433	6	1986
53	Melia, Salome	m	GEO	2431	9	1987
54	Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina	m	RUS	2428	4	1974
55	Munguntuul, Batkhuyag	wg	MGL	2427	15	1987
56	Moser, Eva	m	AUT	2424	8	1982
57	Li, Ruofan	m	SIN	2423	0	1978
58	Ovod, Evgenija	m	RUS	2415	0	1982
59	Khurtsidze, Nino	m	GEO	2414	13	1975
60	Vasilevich, Tatjana	m	UKR	2414	0	1977
61	Cori T., Deysi	wm	PER	2412	33	1993
62	Peptan, Corina-Isabela	m	ROU	2411	7	1978
63	Savina, Anastasia		RUS	2407	20	1992
64	Matnadze, Ana	m	GEO	2407	9	1983
65	Karavade, Eesha	wg	IND	2405	11	1987
66	Milliet, Sophie	m	FRA	2404	13	1983
67	Jackova, Jana	m	CZE	2403	16	1982
68	Tsereteli, Tamar	wg	GEO	2403	9	1985
69	Zdebskaja, Natalia	wg	UKR	2402	16	1986
70	Peng, Zhaoqin	g	NED	2402	9	1968
71	Houska, Jovanka	m	ENG	2401	18	1980
72	Stockova, Zuzana	m	SVK	2401	0	1977
73	Tania, Sachdev	m	IND	2398	11	1986
74	Zawadzka, Jolanta	wg	POL	2391	19	1987
75	Zaiatz, Elena	m	RUS	2391	4	1969
76	Alexandrova, Olga	m	ESP	2391	0	1978
77	Matveeva, Svetlana	m	RUS	2391	0	1969
78	Stepovaia, Tatiana	wg	RUS	2389	8	1965
79	Molchanova, Tatjana	wm	RUS	2388	8	1980
80	Maric, Alisa	m	SRB	2387	9	1970
81	Turova, Irina	m	RUS	2386	8	1979
82	Madl, Ildiko	m	HUN	2385	7	1969
83	Bojkovic, Natasa	m	SRB	2384	9	1971
84	Kovanova, Baira	wg	RUS	2384	2	1987
85	Shadrina, Tatiana	wg	RUS	2382	9	1974
86	Pokorna, Regina	wg	SVK	2382	0	1982
87	Galojan, Lilit	wg	ARM	2374	8	1983
88	Dworakowska, Joanna	m	POL	2374	7	1978
89	Majdan, Joanna	wg	POL	2374	7	1988
90	Bodnaruk, Anastasia	wg	RUS	2372	2	1992
91	Lomineishvili, Maia	m	GEO	2371	0	1977
92	Gara, Anita	m	HUN	2370	17	1983
93	Michna, Marta	wg	GER	2370	8	1978
94	Vajda, Szidonia	m	HUN	2369	17	1979
95	Iljushina, Olga	wg	RUS	2367	0	1981
96	Goletiani, Rusudan	m	USA	2366	0	1980
97	Girya, Olga	wg	RUS	2365	23	1991
98	Gaprindashvili, Nona	g	GEO	2360	9	1941
99	Calzetta Ruiz, Monica	wg	ESP	2359	8	1972
100	Djingarova, Emilia	wg	BUL	2359	0	1978

Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
www.chessblog.com

Are Women Stronger now than 5 years ago?

I had a look today at the FIDE Rating List for Top Women, both the most recent one, and the one for 5 years ago, in 2004. Have a look, there are now many more women above 2500 than 5 years ago (14 vs. 5).

Top Women on April 1, 2009.

There are 14 women players who are rated above the "2500" mark on April 1, 2009.

Rank	Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games	B-Year
1	Polgar, Judit	g	HUN	2693	0	1976
2	Koneru, Humpy	g	IND	2612	17	1987
3	Hou, Yifan	g	CHN	2590	29	1994
4	Stefanova, Antoaneta	g	BUL	2549	21	1979
5	Dzagnidze, Nana	g	GEO	2541	24	1987
6	Muzychuk, Anna	m	SLO	2533	28	1990
7	Zhao, Xue	g	CHN	2531	22	1985
8	Cramling, Pia	g	SWE	2528	37	1963
9	Sebag, Marie	g	FRA	2527	11	1986
10	Kosintseva, Tatiana	m	RUS	2522	25	1986
11	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	g	RUS	2516	0	1984
12	Chiburdanidze, Maia	g	GEO	2506	11	1961
13	Danielian, Elina	m	ARM	2503	34	1978
14	Pogonina, Natalija	wg	RUS	2501	25	1985

Let's compare with the rating list of 5 years ago. On April 1, 2004 only 5 women were rated higher than 2500.

Rank	Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games	B-Day
1	Polgar, Judit	g	HUN	2728	0	1976-07-23
2	Xie, Jun	g	CHN	2564	0	1970-10-30
3	Koneru, Humpy	g	IND	2513	44	1987-03-31
4	Chiburdanidze, Maia	g	GEO	2502	0	1961-01-17
5	Galliamova, Alisa	m	RUS	2502	0	1972-01-18

I think this shows that the top world's women play significantly stronger now than they did 5 years ago. It can't be due to "rating inflation", or at least not by such a big amount, only 5 years have passed.

Women in the last 5 years have had more chances to play in strong men and women's tournaments. Also, many top women now have grandmaster trainers who help them before and during tournaments.

When I was playing the final of the Women's World Championship in Nalchik last fall, my opponent Hou Yifan had a whole team from China to support her, with 4 male Grandmasters.

I also train on a regular basis with several GM's.

Top players in the world now also have access to Chess Database programs and can follow on the web games immediately as they are played.

This and other factors have contributed to the higher level of Women's Chess during the last years.

If you have any comments about the above, please write them in the comments below.

Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion