After initially depriving him of the top position in its latest ranking list, FIDE bowed to widespread pressure and crowned the Indian as the world's number one player.
NEW DELHI: After initially depriving Viswanathan Anand of the top position in its latest ranking list, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) on Sunday bowed to widespread pressure and crowned the Indian as the world's number one player.
FIDE Rating Committee Chairman Casto Abundo confirmed Anand as the game's new number one.
"Congratulations to Anand and the All India Chess Federation. Pleased to inform you that we have rated Linares event today and Anand is world number one," Abundo said.
The Indian was to become the world number one on FIDE charts for the first time in his career after he won the Morelia-Linares tournament in Spain last month. But the FIDE list showed Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria still on the top, 13 points ahead of Anand.
The game's world governing body said that the Morelia-Linares tournament was not taken into consideration while updating the rankings since it concluded on Mar 10, outside the cut-off date of Feb 28.
But following the AICF's strong protests and widespread criticism, FIDE agreed to correct the list.
AICF Secretary D V Sundar objected to the FIDE's deviation from the long-standing practice of including the tournament in calculations for preparing the April ranking list.
"The AICF asked FIDE to rate this event as done in the past 15 or more years. The Linares tournament has been traditionally been included in all rating lists published by FIDE in April and excluding it this time will be injustice to Indian chess and Viswanathan Anand," the AICF said on its official website.
AICF Treasurer Bharat Singh Chauhan said the Asian Cities Chess Championship in Tehran, which was held from March 1 to 9, was also included in the tournaments used to calculate the April 2007 list. There were also some other events which spilled into March but were used in the calculations.
"This shows their (FIDE's) double standard," Chauhan said.
Anand overtook Topalov in ELO rating points after his superb win in Morelia-Linares tournament, where the Bulgarian lost a number of rating points before it ended on March 10.
FIDE Presidential Board member Nigel Freeman defended the original list, saying it was "completely fair".
"Before the conspiracy theories get out of hand, perhaps I can explain what happened to the best of my knowledge," he said.
"With regards to Morelia-Linares, in order to be completely fair, the Ratings Committee has decided that only tournaments that finished a month before the rating list comes into effect should be rated," Freeman said.
"Once one starts to make exceptions, where does one stop? Why Morelia-Linares and not a whole host of others," he added.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}