Chess wizard Anand is formally world No.1

New Delhi, April 2 India's Viswanathan Anand was formally crowned world No. 1 Monday when the world chess governing body corrected its mistake and gave the pride of place to the grandmaster.

Anand, with 2,786 rating points, becomes numero uno following his triumph at the Morelia-Linares tournament in Spain last month - the last tournament taken into calculation for determining the rankings.

The 37-year-old Indian thus displaces Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria from the top. Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik are now joint second with 2,772 points, though the Bulgarian has been given the second spot.

The Indian's elevation marks the first time in a decade that Anand, who has been among the world's top three players for 15 years, had officially been named No. 1. He won the World Championships in 2000 but then Russian Garry Kasparov was the world No. 1.

Earlier Sunday, FIDE made a faux pas by listing on its official website Anand as No. 2, behind Topalov, ignoring the Indian's Linares performance.

But after the All India Chess Federation (AICF) pointed the mistake out, the world body corrected its mistake and released the redone rankings Monday.

FIDE releases the world rankings every three months.

GM Krishna Sasikiran is the second highest ranked Indian on the rankings' list. He is 25th with 2,690 rating points.

P. Harikrishna with 2,650 points is the next best-ranked Indian at the 57th position.

Anand also did well in Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament in Monaco last week, but performance here will only be counted in the next rankings in the July list.

Anand won the rapid title and finished joint seventh in the blindfold category. Overall, he finished second with 13.5 points behind Kramnik who had 15.5 points.

(c) Indo-Asian News Service

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