Weselin Topalov has now exceeded Kasparov's highest rating with an elo of 2813 after a fine performance at the M-Telmasters in Sofia, while Anand lost a few points at that event and a lot more at the Turin Olympiad where he scored only 50 percent.

Levon Aronian, who figured in a controversy in the Olympiad when he had a fight with English GM D. Gormally over Fil-Aussie beauty Arienne Caolli, considered the "Anna Kournikova of chess," gained 21 points with his fine performance at the Russian Team Championship and at the Turin Olympiad.

Kramnik's also fine performance at Turin enabled him to gain 14 points and is now at No.4. Michael Adams returns to the top 10 after gaining 12 points.

Ruslan Ponomariov's poor showing lately cost him 17 points and dropped to 13th place from No.6. Other fine performances out of the top 10 were Skakhriyar Mammadyarov's (Azerbaijan)?gain of 23 points to rise to No. 12, David Navarra's massive gain of 61 points to go to No.14, Gata Kamsky's gain of 26 points, and the two "schoolboys" Sergey Karyakin and Magnus Carlsen continued excellent performances where they rose to 27 and 34, respectively. The Philippines' Mark Paragua, who was in the top 100 previously, is out.

Odd man out is 52-year-old FM Vladimir Afromeev, who is in the top 100 with a rating of 2620 and not a grandmaster - a unique occurrence.

In the Women's section Judit Polgar remains at the top with a rating of 2710 (17th overall in the world) with India's Koneru Humpy 162 points behind.

Alexandra Kosteniuk remains at solid third place, while Pia Cramling rose to fourth with Antoneatta Stefanova a point behind at fifth. No.8 is China's darling FM Hou Yifan, who is only 12-years-old.

The top Junior player is Teimour Radjabov who is also 11th overall in the world. A year older is second-placer Pentala Harikrishna, followed by Kasparov's heirs-apparent Sergey Karyakin, 16, and Magnus Carlsen, 15.

TOP 10 MEN. 1) Veselin Topalov 31 Bulgaria 2813 2) Viwanathan Anand 37 India 2779 3) Levon Aronian 24 Armenia 2761 4) Vladimir Kramnik 31 Russia 2743 5) Peter Svidler 30 Russia 2742 6) Peter Leko 27 Hungary 2738 7) Vassily Ivanchuk 37 Ukraine 2734 8) Michael Adams 35 2732 9) Alexander Morozevich 29 Russia 2731 10) Boris Gelfand Israel 2729.

TOP 10 WOMEN. 1) Judit Polgar 30 Hungary 2710 2) Koneru Humpy 19 India 2548 3) Alexandra Kosteniuk 22 Russia 2534 4) Pia Cramling 43 Sweden 2521 5) Antoanetta Stefanova 27 Bulgaria 27 6) Xu Yuhua 30 China 2517 7) Maia Chiburdanidze 45 Georgia 2504 8) Hou Yifan 12 China 2488 9) Tatiana Kosintseva 20 Russia 2479 10) Viktorija Cmylite 23 Lithuania 2476

TOP 10 JUNIORS. 1) Teymur Rajabov 19 Azerbaijan 2728 2) Pentala Harikrishna India 20 2682 3) Sergey Karyakin 16 Ukraine 2679 4) Magnus Carlsen 15 Norway 2673 5) Andrei Volokitin 20 Ukraine 2662 6) Vugar Gashimov 20 Azerbaijan 2644 7) Alexander Areschenko 20 Ukraine 2641 8) Hikaru Nakamura 19 USA 2632 9) Ivan Cheparinov 20 Bulgaria 2632 10) Yue Wang 19 China 2610.

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