August 2012 top 50
| Rk | Name | Title | Country | Rating | Games | B-Year |
| 1 | Carlsen, Magnus | g | NOR | 2837 | 0 | 1990 |
| 2 | Aronian, Levon | g | ARM | 2816 | 0 | 1982 |
| 3 | Kramnik, Vladimir | g | RUS | 2797 | 9 | 1975 |
| 4 | Radjabov, Teimour | g | AZE | 2788 | 0 | 1987 |
| 5 | Karjakin, Sergey | g | RUS | 2785 | 9 | 1990 |
| 6 | Anand, Viswanathan | g | IND | 2780 | 0 | 1969 |
| 7 | Nakamura, Hikaru | g | USA | 2778 | 0 | 1987 |
| 8 | Caruana, Fabiano | g | ITA | 2773 | 15 | 1992 |
| 9 | Morozevich, Alexander | g | RUS | 2770 | 0 | 1977 |
| 10 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | g | UKR | 2769 | 0 | 1969 |
| 11 | Grischuk, Alexander | g | RUS | 2763 | 0 | 1983 |
| 12 | Topalov, Veselin | g | BUL | 2752 | 0 | 1975 |
| 13 | Svidler, Peter | g | RUS | 2749 | 0 | 1976 |
| 14 | Kamsky, Gata | g | USA | 2746 | 9 | 1974 |
| 15 | Gelfand, Boris | g | ISR | 2738 | 0 | 1968 |
| 16 | Leko, Peter | g | HUN | 2737 | 9 | 1979 |
| 17 | Gashimov, Vugar | g | AZE | 2737 | 0 | 1986 |
| 18 | Bologan, Viktor | g | MDA | 2734 | 10 | 1971 |
| 19 | Ponomariov, Ruslan | g | UKR | 2734 | 9 | 1983 |
| 20 | Tomashevsky, Evgeny | g | RUS | 2730 | 5 | 1987 |
| 21 | Jobava, Baadur | g | GEO | 2730 | 0 | 1983 |
| 22 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | g | AZE | 2729 | 8 | 1985 |
| 23 | Wang, Hao | g | CHN | 2726 | 11 | 1989 |
| 24 | Dominguez Perez, Leinier | g | CUB | 2725 | 0 | 1983 |
| 25 | Jakovenko, Dmitry | g | RUS | 2722 | 16 | 1983 |
| 26 | Adams, Michael | g | ENG | 2722 | 10 | 1971 |
| 27 | Wojtaszek, Radoslaw | g | POL | 2717 | 0 | 1987 |
| 28 | Andreikin, Dmitry | g | RUS | 2715 | 14 | 1990 |
| 29 | Fressinet, Laurent | g | FRA | 2714 | 0 | 1981 |
| 30 | Almasi, Zoltan | g | HUN | 2713 | 0 | 1976 |
| 31 | Bacrot, Etienne | g | FRA | 2713 | 0 | 1983 |
| 32 | McShane, Luke J | g | ENG | 2713 | 0 | 1984 |
| 33 | Naiditsch, Arkadij | g | GER | 2712 | 9 | 1985 |
| 34 | Riazantsev, Alexander | g | RUS | 2712 | 6 | 1985 |
| 35 | Giri, Anish | g | NED | 2711 | 7 | 1994 |
| 36 | Bruzon Batista, Lazaro | g | CUB | 2711 | 0 | 1982 |
| 37 | Volokitin, Andrei | g | UKR | 2709 | 2 | 1986 |
| 38 | Malakhov, Vladimir | g | RUS | 2708 | 16 | 1980 |
| 39 | Sasikiran, Krishnan | g | IND | 2707 | 0 | 1981 |
| 40 | Moiseenko, Alexander | g | UKR | 2706 | 0 | 1980 |
| 41 | Shirov, Alexei | g | LAT | 2706 | 0 | 1972 |
| 42 | Vitiugov, Nikita | g | RUS | 2705 | 16 | 1987 |
| 43 | Nepomniachtchi, Ian | g | RUS | 2704 | 16 | 1990 |
| 44 | Wang, Yue | g | CHN | 2703 | 5 | 1987 |
| 45 | Polgar, Judit | g | HUN | 2698 | 12 | 1976 |
| 46 | Short, Nigel D | g | ENG | 2698 | 9 | 1965 |
| 47 | Movsesian, Sergei | g | ARM | 2698 | 0 | 1978 |
| 48 | Vallejo Pons, Francisco | g | ESP | 2697 | 0 | 1982 |
| 49 | Sokolov, Ivan | g | NED | 2696 | 13 | 1968 |
| 50 | Ding, Liren | g | CHN | 2695 | 19 | 1992 |
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Nakamura is #1.
is this rating based on active play like tennis atp ratings?that could explain rating the reigning world champion anand outside top five as he has been inactive for a few months.