1970
1 Fischer Robert James………….. USA 2720 WC
2-3 Spassky, Boris……………….. URS 2670 WC
Kortchnoi, Viktor…………….. URS 2670
4-5 Geller, Efim…………………. URS 2660
Keres, Paul………………….. URS 2660
6-7 Larsen, Bent…………………. DEN 2650
Petrosian, Tigran…………….. URS 2650 WC
January 1975
1 Fischer Robert ………….. USA 2780 WC
2 Karpov, Anatoly………………. URS 2705 WC
3 Kortchnoi, Viktor…………….. URS 2655
4-6 Petrosian, Tigran…………….. URS 2645 WC
Polugaevsky, Lev……………… URS 2645
Tal, Mikhail…………………. URS 2645 WC
January 1980
1 Karpov, Anatoly………………. URS 2725 WC
2 Tal, Mikhail…………………. URS 2705 WC
3 Kortchnoi, Viktor…………….. SWZ 2695
4 Portisch, Lajos………………. HUN 2655
5 Polugaevsky, Lev……………… URS 2635
6-8 Spassky, Boris……………….. URS 2615 WC
Petrosian, Tigran…………….. URS 2615 WC
Mecking, Enrique……………… BRA 2615
January 1985
1 Kasparov, Gary……………….. URS 2715 WC
2 Karpov, Anatoly………………. URS 2705 WC
3 Timman, Jan………………….. NLD 2650
4 Vaganian, Rafael……………… URS 2640
5-6 Beliavsky, Alexander………….. URS 2635
Portisch, Lajos………………. HUN 2635
7 Kortchnoi, Viktor…………….. SWZ 2630
8 Polugaevsky, Lev……………… URS 2625
9-10 Nunn, John…………………… ENG 2615
Ribli Zoltan…………………. HUN 2615
January 1990
1 Kasparov, Gary……………….. URS 2800 WC
2 Karpov, Anatoly………………. URS 2730 WC
3 Timman, Jan………………….. NLD 2680
4 Ivanchuk, Vassily…………….. URS 2665
5-6 Gurevich, Mikhail…………….. URS 2645
Salov, Valery………………… URS 2645
7 Beliavsky, Alexander………….. URS 2640
8 Short, Nigel…………………. ENG 2635
9 Andersson, Ulf……………….. SVE 2630
10-11 Kortchnoi, Viktor…………….. SWZ 2625
Ljubojevic, Ljubomir………….. JUG 2625
January 1995
1 Kasparov, Gary……………….. RUS 2805 WC
2 Karpov, Anatoly………………. RUS 2765 WC
3-5 Salov, Valery………………… RUS 2715
Anand, Viswanathan……………. IND 2715 WC
Kramnik, Vladimir…………….. RUS 2715 WC
6-7 Shirov, Alexei……………….. ESP 2710
Kamsky, Gata…………………. USA 2710
8-9 Gelfand, Boris……………….. BLR 2700
Ivanchuk, Vassily…………….. UKR 2700
10 Bareev, Evgeny……………….. RUS 2675
Sources: Mark Weeks’ Blog
FIDE Official Site: http://www.fide.com/
New In Chess Magazine 1/1991
Scacco (Italian Magazine) Jan & Jul 1988, Feb & Sep 1989
L’Italia Scacchistica (Italian Magazine) Feb 1984, Mar 1985
great article!
Kortchnoi was born in 1931. How impressive is that.
What’s so impressive about that? Lots of people were born in 1931.
It’s easy. Really, the mother does all the work.
Marcus Grey recounts an amusing episode in his R.E.M. biography, It Crawled From the South. A writer congratulated guitarist Peter Buck on the birth of his first child. Buck replied, “I didn’t really do that much.”
Susan,
I would be very interested to know from which of the sources you quote that you took the 1970 ratings.
For they contain a major error.
Keres’ rating is in fact 2600, not 2660.
I have seen this error elsewhere, too, and am curious to know the source of it.
My source is the UK magazine ‘CHESS’ Nos. 609-10, 17th July 1970 [says August 1970 on the cover], Page 371.
These “1970” ratings are in fact an average over January 1966 to December 1969 compiled by Professor Elo.
That 2600 is the correct rating for Keres would seem to be confirmed by three factors.
(1) There is no way that Keres was regarded as 4th equal in the world in 1970. For example, he was put on Board 10 for the Soviets in the 1970 USSR-World match!
(2) In the next rating list, January 1971 (which is in fact an average of 1968-1970), Keres’ rating is given as 2600.
(3) Elo had compiled a previous list averaging over January 1966 to May 1969 [published in ‘CHESS’ Nos 593-4, 20th November 1969].
In this Keres’ rating is given as 2610.
It is impossible to believe that Keres’ results in June-December 1969 [when he did nothing special anyway] would have been such as to raise his average over the whole period by 50 points.
There is also an error in the January 1975 list.
Korchnoi’s rating is 2665, not 2655 [British Chess Magazine 1975].
Again, it would be interesting to know which source you took this error from.
It is interesting to note that Professor Elo himself may have made an error in calculating Geller’s rating in the 1970 list.
His rating there of 2660, above Larsen and Petrosian, looks suspiciously high.
His rating in the average of January 1966 to May 1969 list is 2620.
Again, it is stretching belief that Geller’s results in the period June-December 1969 (which were good, but nothing special) would have raised his average over the whole period by 40 points.
And in the January 1971 [average of 1968-1970] list, his rating is back at a more ‘natural’ level of 2630.
So if you would let me know the sources of the errors, that would be interesting.
It is not good that such errors, one quite serious, have widespread circulation.