10.07.2006 ALEXANDER KENTLER. CROSSROADS
     I have never seen anything like that. Evgeny Tomashevsky is the only Russian chessplayer in Top 20 Juniors rating list. He takes fifteenth place with 2594 points. The situation in Top 20 Girls is slightly better. There are four Russian chessplayers: T.Kosintseva, Tairova, Gunina and Vasilkova. We can see the same ratio in Top 20 Women: four women from our country are among the best chessplayers. At last, only 23 Russian chessplayers rank among Top 100 Men.  
     Vladimir Afromeev looks like to be the main sensation of July Rating List. At the age of 52 he increased to 2620 and it seems to me that it is not his absolute limit. It looks as if it was quite boring for him to demonstrate his strength only in his region. Well, he has already succeeded in Moscow. Now we can wait for his results on the world scene.
     After Kasparov’s retirement the difference between Topalov and the others is striking indeed. Probably, it is so because Anand’s rating decreased sharply. Now fifty points difference between two leaders of the world chess seems to be disturbing. However, the rise of Aronian’s rating and Kramnik’s return (now he is the fourth) may encourage a little.
    Unfortunately, the average rating of Russian Top players (for example, Russian Top 10) decreased.  It is a pity that only four Russians are younger than twenty years old (Tomashevsky, Vitiugov and Lysyj were born in 1987 and Khairullin was born in 1990). Moreover, there are only three chessplayers who are twenty years old: Savchenko, Grachev and Maletin.
  
 I would like to publish the lists of Top 10 Men as the illustration of the thoughts stated above.
      World Тор 10 Players
Topalov 2813, Anand 2779, Aronian 2761, Kramnik 2743, Svidler 2742, Leko 2738, Ivanchuk 2734, Adams 2732, Morozevich 2731, Gelfand 2729
      Russia Top 10 Players
Kramnik 2743, Svidler 2742, Morozevich 2731, Grischuk 2709, Malakhov 2690, Bareev 2683, Najer 2677, Zvjaginsev 2675, Karpov 2668, Jakovenko 2667
    Saint Petersburg Top 10 Players
Svidler 2742, Alekseev 2644, Sakaev 2642, Khalifman 2622, Popov 2578, Yevseev 2572, Epishin 2555, Vitiugov 2555, S.Ivanov 2534, Lugovoi 2531